The Indian Car of The Year (ICOTY) 2020: Hyundai Venue

Team OD Published: December 19, 2019, 10:22 AM IST

After setting the sales charts on fire even in current grim state of the Indian automotive market, the Hyundai Venue has earned the validation of being the best from the competitive lot of cars launched in 2019. The Venue is the winner of the esteemed Indian Car of The Year (ICOTY) award for 2020. The awards night, held by the ICOTY committee, concluded on the evening of December 18, 2019 in Delhi. Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Limited, presented the ICOTY trophy to Hyundai. Mr. Yogendra Pratap, Chairman of the ICOTY, presented Hyundai with the winner's certificate that was signed by all the jury members.

As per the criteria set by the ICOTY committee, 11 finalists were shortlisted this year, viz. the Honda Civic, Hyundai Venue and Grand i10 Nios, Kia Seltos, Mahindra XUV300, Maruti Suzuki S-Presso and WagonR, Morris Garages Hector, Nissan Kicks, Renault Triber and Tata Harrier. The Mahindra XUV 300 was a no-show. The Hyundai Venue won the top honours, ahead of the runners up Kia Seltos and the Renault Triber.

This year's jury comprised of Yogendra Pratap and Rahul Ghosh from Auto Today, Dhruv Behl and Ishan Raghava from AutoX, Aspi Bhathena and Sarmad Kadiri from Car India, Sirish Chandran and Aniruddha Rangnekar from Evo India, Kartik Ware and Pablo Chaterji from Motoring World, Bertrand D'souza and Rohit Paradkar from OVERDRIVE, Muralidhar Swaminathan from The Hindu Business Line, Vikrant Singh from carwale.com, Kushan Mitra from The Pioneer and Girish Karkera from GQ India.

This year, the ICOTY jury panel's voting process was supported by Grant Thornton who came onboard as the Award Validators. JK Tyre, who are a staunch supporter of ICOTY's endeavours since the award's inception, was instrumental as always in organising the function and the gala dinner. The venue for this year's awards night was the JW Marriott Aerocity in New Delhi. Well known musician, Gary Lawyer, graced the ceremony with his performance. The momentous occasion witnessed the presence of stalwarts from the Indian automotive industry and the esteemed automotive media fraternity.