Hyundai i20 Elite is the Indian Car of the Year 2015

The Hyundai i20 Elite was announced the winner of the Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) 2015. The winning car was unveiled at a glittering ceremony in Mumbai on Wednesday.

On behalf of the Jury of ICOTY 2015, Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd handed over the Indian Car of the Year trophy to the team from Hyundai Motor India Ltd.

About 15 new cars launched in 2014 qualified for these awards and 10 made it to the final jury evaluation round held in Lonavala on December 4, 2014.

The top three contenders were the Hyundai Elite i20, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Honda City. The Hyundai Elite i20 with 123 points was the clear winner with the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz scoring 67 points and Honda City 65 points.

The other final contenders were the Maruti Suzuki Celerio and Alto K10, the Honda Mobilio, the Datsun GO, the Toyota Corolla Altis, the new Mahindra Scorpio and the Tata Zest.

The Elite i20 is a completely new model that replaced the earlier i20.

Based on a new architecture and with its new Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design theme, the i20 Elite also packages an extremely well-finished cabin. It has gone on to set a new standard for cars in the B+ segment.

This year was the 10th anniversary of the ICOTY, which has emerged as the most credible and coveted award and is now almost like the ‘Oscar’ of Indian automotive awards. This award is an expert and independent judgement of the best new car, and the award has been gaining prominence with each passing year. JK Tyre has been sponsoring the award ceremony of the ICOTY ever since its inception.

The Jury of ICOTY 2015 included Bob Rupani (Chairman), Yogendra Pratap (Auto Bild), Rahul Ghosh (Auto Bild), Dhruv Behl (Auto X), Arup Das (Auto X), Rohin Nagrani (Motoring World), Kartik Ware (Motoring World), Aspi Bhathena (Car India), Aninda Sardar (Car India), Bertrand D'souza (Overdrive), Halley Prabhakar (Overdrive), Girish Karkera (BBC Top Gear), Murali Menon (BBC Top Gear), Sirish Chandran (Evo India), Ouseph Chacko (Evo India) and Muralidhar Swaminathan (The Hindu Business Line). In all eight prestigious publications were represented on the ICOTY 2015 Jury.

This specialist jury consisting of sixteen senior Indian automotive journalists is the best from the industry and together they have over 300 years of experience.

The jury is known for their analytical skills and competence in evaluating and testing cars, as a part of their profession. The highly experienced jury members are responsible for selecting a single decisive winner and the voting process has been designed to be very fair, unbiased and tamper proof.

The ICOTY award is in line with international standards and modelled on the American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and Japanese Car of the Year.

The eligible cars were judged on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, performance, practicality, technical innovation, value for money and above all suitability for Indian consumers and driving conditions. Last year's winner was the Hyundai Grand i10.