Jaguar F-Pace awarded World Car of the Year

IN A sign of the times, the top three places at this year’s World Car of the Year awards were awarded to SUVs with Jaguar’s inaugural F-Pace crossover taking top honours at an event held at last week’s New York auto show.

Jaguar scored 754 points to take out the award, beating out the Audi Q5 (734) and Volkswagen Tiguan (740) – both in their second iteration – for overall bragging rights, and the first-ever F-Pace also took home the award for World Car Design of the Year ahead of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet and Toyota C-HR.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth said that “winning this award endorses the talent and great work of our teams that have delivered the world’s most practical sportscar and Jaguar’s fastest-selling vehicle”.

Meanwhile, Jaguar director of design Ian Callum – who also penned the F-Type sportscar and XE mid-sizer, in addition to the F-Pace – called the accolades vindication for “our decision to bring our unique design principles and dynamic qualities to a new sector of the market”.

Other finalists for the World Car of the Year award included the Audi’s first Q2 crossover, which scored 697, the 10th-genereation Honda Civic (702), the MX-5-based Abarth 124 Spider (643) and Mazda’s seven-seat CX-9 SUV (695).

In other categories, Mercedes took out the 2017 World Luxury Car award with its fifth-generation E-Class, scoring 816 points and beating out the seventh-gen BMW 5 Series (783) and new Volvo S90/V90 (792).

Porsche’s new turbocharged Boxster and Cayman twins won the 2017 World Performance Car award with a score of 781, ahead of the Audi R8 Spyder (777) and exotic McLaren 570S (768).

The 2017 World Urban Car was awarded to the BMW i3 94Ah – which accrued 743 points – with the new Citroen C3 and reborn Suzuki Ignis rounding out the top three on respective scores of 721 and 634.

Finally, the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid took home the award for 2017 World Green Car on 765 points, overcoming the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt (764) and Tesla Model X SUV with no score revealed.

All vehicles are assessed and scored on criteria including occupant environment, performance, value, safety, market significance and emotional appeal.