The electric Jaguar I-Pace is the winner of the Car of the Year award in Europe. Jaguar is now labeled as the first storied brand to bestow the price despite the looms that Brexit brings to the continent's auto industry.
The Jaguar won a runoff as dozens of automobile journalists vote to break the tie with the Alpine A110 sports car for the top place during the first round of voting. Ian Callum, Jaguar's design director, said the form sees electric cars as the future. He said that the electric car show how Jaguar can innovate as he touted the new platform for the I-Pace.
Jaguar is a British brand which is now owned by India's Tata Motors. The I-Pace is a 4dr all-wheel-drive sports utility vehicle with a manufacturer suggested a retail price range of $69, 500 to $75,900.
The Car of the Year award was established in 1964. It marks the unofficial start of the auto show in Geneva. Seven European magazines organized the prize and it was awarded by 60 journalists from more or less 24 countries. Receiving the award is expected to significantly propel the sales of the winners. The award is a collective effort of car magazines from across Europe that includes Italy's Auto, the UK's Autocar and France's L'Automobile Magazine.
Frank Janssen, jury president of the German weekly Stern, said that he thinks that jury members are quite excited about having a luxury SUV, an electric vehicle with a sporty look, and It's the first electric vehicle from a European premium manufacturer that can take up with Tesla.
The finalists of the award included the Citroen C5 Aircross, Ford Focus, Kia Ceed, Mercedes-Benz A-class and Peugeot 508. The winner was chosen from an initial list of 60 models which was road-tested since October. Two weeks ago, the final tests for the cars were done at a test center outside Paris. The compact SUV, Volvo Xc40, is last year's winner of the prestigious award. The cars need to be on sale in Europe during the previous year and it should have sold at least 5,000 units to qualify for the prize.
Callum said that the award is a great honor and he concluded that everyone needs to accept that electric is the future. He added that the Jaguar I-Pace is certainly the most exciting car that he has worked on in his 40 years in the business.
