EV6, Niro, Sportage Selected as Car of the Year in Australia and Ireland

EV6, BMW iX, Tesla Model Y, VW Polo Outperform Competitors
Niro Small SUV, Sportage Mid-Size SUV Named Cars of the Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Kia announced on the 20th that its dedicated electric vehicle EV6 was selected as the '2022 CarSales Car of the Year' by CarSales, a leading automotive media outlet in Australia.

This year, a judging panel of 10 members evaluated 12 final candidate vehicles, including the EV6, BMW iX, Volkswagen Polo, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Tesla Model Y, and Genesis GV60.

The EV6 proudly won the Car of the Year title by receiving first-place votes from five of the 10 judges, surpassing its competitors.

Notably, the EV6's Car of the Year award is significant as five of the 12 final candidate vehicles were electric cars, indicating fierce competition.

CarSales stated, "The EV6 is an outstanding vehicle that meets the five criteria for Car of the Year selection: safety, innovative technology, practicality, ride comfort and handling, and maintenance costs," adding, "While electric vehicles generally have higher prices, the EV6 is the most competitive in terms of maintenance costs."

In Ireland, the Niro and Sportage were respectively selected as the Car of the Year in the small SUV and mid-size SUV categories at the '2023 Ireland Car of the Year' organized by the Irish Automotive Journalists Association.

The Niro won the small SUV category, beating the Volkswagen Taigo and Suzuki S-Cross, while the Sportage was named Car of the Year in the mid-size SUV category, surpassing the Volkswagen ID.5, Mercedes-Benz EQB, Volvo C40, and Nissan Ariya.

A Kia official said, "The Car of the Year awards for the Niro and Sportage are an honor as they recognize the product competitiveness in the highly competitive European small and mid-size SUV segments," adding, "All employees will continue to strive to provide the best products to our customers."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.