Kia Motors Corporation has won big at the 2020 World Car Awards with the Telluride named ‘World Car of the Year’ and the Kia Soul EV ‘World Urban Car’
The Soul EV was chosen from an initial entry list of eight cars from all over the world, then a short list of three finalists as announced on March 3rd. The 2020 Top Three in the World finalists are the Kia Soul EV, the Mini Electric and the Volkswagen T-Cross.
The fully-electric Kia Soul EV was named the ideal car for the city by the jury, combining zero-emission performance and impressive electric range with a compact body, bold design, and high levels of practicality.
The compact Kia Soul EV features a powerful battery-electric powertrain with a choice of 64 or 39.2 kWh battery packs. Able to travel up to 452 kilometers on a single charge (64 kWh models; WLTP ‘combined’ cycle), the Soul EV offers drivers greater all-electric range than many more expensive electric vehicles, making it the ideal companion, both in the urban environment and beyond city limits. A series of advanced range-increasing technologies, including regenerative braking, ensures drivers can maximize the distance on a single charge.
“It is a great honor for us to see the Soul EV named as World Urban Car,” said Thomas Schemera, Executive Vice President and Head of Product Division at Kia Motors Corporation. “This is one of the hardest-fought competitions in the global automotive industry, proving that the Soul EV is a truly outstanding vehicle for drivers in towns and cities. This accolade is testament to the talents and efforts of a worldwide team, who all strive to create desirable, high-quality and practical cars that drivers love.”
The World Urban Car award was introduced in 2017. World Car Awards Program co-chair, Mike Rutherford, commented, “The World Urban Car award is increasingly significant as these clever, comparatively small cars measuring up to 4.2m long are among the biggest-selling, most accessible, best value vehicles in showrooms across the globe.”
“The fact is that large towns and cities with limited road space/off-street parking facilities continue to attract more residents, workers and other visitors. With this trend in mind, the popularity of urban cars is growing – and can only grow further. These are the logical, affordable, real-world automotive products for the motoring masses.”
Vehicles were selected and voted on by an international jury panel comprising 86 prominent automotive journalists from 24 countries around the world. Each juror was appointed by the World Car Steering Committee on the basis of his or her expertise, experience, credibility, and influence. The international accounting firm KPMG tabulated the jurors’ ballots.
There were several stops along the road for the 2020 program, including one in Los Angeles in November for our sixth annual L.A. Test Drives event hosted by ZF.
Then, the World Car Finals were launched live in New Delhi, India from the Delhi auto show on February 5th when the Top 10 and Top Five finalists in five World Car Awards categories were announced.
The World Car Finals continued with the announcement of the Top Three in the World finalists on March 3, 2020.
The Road to the World Car Awards ends today with the announcement of the 2020 winners.
2020 marks the 15th year of the World Car Awards partnership with the New York International Auto Show. The show has been rescheduled until August 28 to September 6, 2020. The media preview days will take place on August 26th and 27th (credentials required). The World Car Awards will launch its 2021 program at this time instead of in Paris. The launch will include a preliminary list of eligible vehicles for the 2021 season.
