THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR & THE ROAD AHEAD

“CELEBRATING THE BEST OF TODAY. INSPIRING THE BEST OF TOMORROW”

Introduction Peter Lyon - Chairman, World Car Awards

World Car Awards Chairman Peter Lyon addressing the media at the 2016 Paris Motor Show

Bonjour from the Paris Motor Show, where the World Car by Prime Research. It was also my pleasure to welcome Awards kicked off its official 2017 awards season. Held at back Bridgestone and Autoneum as presenting partners of the BMW stand inside the show site, we were joined at our World Car. media reception by BMW board member Ian Robertson to celebrate the 7 Series’ position as the reigning winner of At the end of our media reception, we released lists of the World Luxury Car award. eligible vehicles for five World Car categories (World , World Luxury/Performance Car, World Green As WCA chairman, it was my honour to announce that the Car, World Car Design of the Year and the inaugural World World Car Awards had – for the fourth consecutive year Urban Car) and informed the audience of over 150 industry – been ranked as the world’s No 1 car awards program in colleagues that our 74 jurors from 23 countries are well on terms of media reach, a result surveyed and presented the way to completing their test drives and evaluation. World Car Awards Jurors at the 2016 Paris Motor Show

Jurors will have until the second week in January to World Car is more than an awards program complete their drives before the first online voting session begins. World Car is more than just an awards program. It is a resource for the industry with a focus on excellence and One event which has become crucial on the World Car innovation on a global scale. Our role is not just to reward calendar is the Los Angeles TestFest in mid-November, a current achievement but to provide an insight into the joint manufacturer test drive session that allows more than future, via trend studies and related initiatives and to one-third of jury members the opportunity to evaluate cars foster innovation for that future. from the US, Germany, Japan, Korea, UK, Italy and Sweden on the same roads and conditions back to back. Keep a lookout for our test drive reports of the dozen- plus candidate vehicles that will appear in international Once our jurors have voted online for the second time (the publications after the LA TestFest. See you in Geneva in first time to narrow down lists to a final 10, the second time March for the finalists’ announcement and then in New our jurors select the category winners) in early February, York City in April for the trophy-giving ceremony. we will once again convene in March at the Bridgestone stand inside the Geneva Motor Show site to announce the Peter Lyon is WCA Chairman, director and juror, based in finalists in our five categories. Japan.”

Then, in April, we will mark our 11th year in New York City as we welcome over 300 industry heavyweights to our high- profile awards ceremony at the New York International Auto Show in April where all five category winners will be revealed.

A relationship we were proud to form this year and continue into the foreseeable future, was a presence at the reborn London Motor Show in May where World Car will display several category winners inside a dedicated stand on the show floor. World Car Awards has been ranked as the world’s No 1 car awards program in terms of media reach for the fourth consecutive year 2017 WORLD CAR AWARDS NOMINATIONS LIST SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

WORLD CAR WORLD PERFORMANCE/ WORLD GREEN OF THE YEAR 2017 LUXURY CAR 2017 CAR 2017

Audi A5 / S5 Coupé R8 Spyder e-tron 3.0 TDI quattro BMW 5 Series BMW 740e iPerformance

Buick LaCrosse Bolt Buick Envision Hybrid Cadillac CT6 Cadillac XT5 Citroën E-MEHARI

Chrysler Pacifica Genesis G90 Clarity Fuel-Cell Car

Fiat/Abarth 124 Spyder Honda/Acura NSX

Genesis G80 LC500 Niro Hybrid

Honda Civic Lincoln Continental Mercedes-Benz GLC 350 e (Plug-In Hybrid) Hyundai Elantra Mercedes-Benz E-Class Mercedes-AMG Roadster Infiniti Q60 Boxster Cayman RAV4 Jaguar F-PACE Prime Evoque Convertible Kia Cadenza Kia Rio / V90 WORLD URBAN CAR 2017 CX-9 WORLD CAR DESIGN OF THE YEAR 2017 SEAT Ateca BMW i3 (94 Ah)

Skoda Kodiaq All of the World Car of the Year Citroën C3 entries automatically qualify for the SsangYong Tivoli Air / XLV design award. Ford KA+

Subaru Impreza In addition, the following stand- Smart Brabus Range alone entries are also nominated Smart Cabriolet Toyota C-HR as candidates: Baleno Tiguan Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS THIS YEAR’S NOMINATIONS

BY MIKE RUTHERFORD, DIRECTOR & VICE-CHAIR OF THE WORLD CAR AWARDS

The nominations list for the 2017 World Car Awards is Between them, those dozens of manufacturers aren’t just littered with shocks and surprises. building products for local consumption. The clue is in the title - the World Car Awards only has room for models that It’s true that some long-established and respected giants are available across continents and can actually be handed such as , Peugeot and Renault are conspicuous by to customers to drive home in (which is not the same as their absence. Yet relative newcomers like SEAT, Smart merely opening the order books). These are vehicles and SsangYong are nominated - and very much gunning for that range in price from around 10,000 to hundreds of glory in their respective WCA classes. thousands of dollars.

But the competition will be tougher than ever this time And that’s the way we like it. Eye-wateringly expensive around. There are still just five priceless awards up for products can be - but aren’t necessarily - the best. grabs. But 50-plus all-new and deliciously tempting models Conversely, those boasting the lowest prices don’t have built by companies based in at least 10 American, European to be the worst. Some big-selling, cheap as chips small and Asian countries will be desperately trying to win them. cars for what I like to think of as comfortably poor drivers After all, we’re talking here about the undisputed number across the globe are as important and significant as one automotive awards programme on the planet... the considerably more exclusive top-end luxury models for ‘Oscars’ of the car world. the super-rich. And as we’ve seen in previous years when the modest Mazda 2 and ! won World Car of the Year (WCOTY) trophies, a brilliantly designed and built new offering simply doesn’t require a high price tag to be crowned overall champ. Long may this situation continue.

In that all-important WCOTY category for 2017 there is already an unexpected emerging ‘winner’ - South Korea. How come? Because it has done the unthinkable by placing six of its cars - three , one Genesis, a SsangYong and a solitary Hyundai - on our just-published WCOTY nominations list. Japan (with 5) comes a close second, then the USA and Germany (4 each) are in joint third place, followed by Britain, the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain on ‘Underdog’ Kia has four World Car Awards nominations, matching larger one apiece. marques like Toyota THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS

And in case you’re wondering why unremarkable (or maybe not!) Kia is nominated four times while Nissan, Peugeot and Renault are not (between them) even nominated once, it’s because the all-new Micra, 3008 and Scenic are launched too late for our 2017 awards or are not available to paying customers in enough corners of the globe.

On a more positive note, hugely under-estimated Suzuki deserves praise for outdoing every one of its Japanese and Korean rivals cum neighbours by receiving two nominations - for Baleno and Ignis - in our new World Urban Car class.

Cadillac, has more nominees in the Luxury/Performance category than Audi, BMW and JLR Another underdog, Cadillac, has more nominees in the Taking all the categories, not just the most prestigious Luxury/Performance category than Audi, BMW and JLR. WCOTY class, into account, Germany tops the pile with 15 And there’s a further major boost for the USA in the World nominations, followed by Japan (12), USA (11), South Korea Green Car class where Chevrolet sits joint top of the (9), then Britain (3), France (2), and the Czech Republic. nominations pile with two strong entries. Italy, Spain and Sweden (1 each). Some of these all-new nominated cars will be at the Why is the largest car-producing nation, China, failing World Car TestFest that operates out of the Westin Hotel, to get its home-grown brands and products nominated? Pasadena before and during the LA Auto Show. If you’re Because it’s still failing to sell its cars to buyers across the a World Car juror and have a few hours or a day or two to continents in the same way that the Germans, Japanese, spare, you’ll be warmly welcomed at our annual event. Americans, Koreans and Brits successfully do. But this situation will surely change in the near future. Just as South Korea is, whether it likes it or not, the ‘new Japan’ in motor industry terms, China will become the ‘new Korea’ - and much, much more due to its unrivalled economies of scale, land mass, and relatively cheap labour rates.

If our 2017 nominations long list is anything to go by, of all the mainstream, truly international carmakers selling products across the globe, Audi is the most active and impressive of the lot, I’d argue. One brand achieving five of the 56 nominations is an astonishing achievement. Toyota isn’t far behind with three, although I’d expect nothing less of the world’s largest, most successful car marque. Suzuki has outperformed its Japanese and Korean neighbours with two nominations - the Baleno (pictured) and Ignis - in the World Urban Car category

Of even greater significance is the fact that underdog Several of those American and Korean contenders will Kia has somehow more than matched Toyota’s three be available to drive and assess - on some of California’s nominations. This performance from South Korea’s finest, sun-drenched, open roads. At this time of year on second vehicle maker must be embarrassing for bigger the eve of winter proper, it’s difficult to think of a better and ‘better’ brother, Hyundai, never mind other direct place on the planet to go road testing. competitors from Asia, Europe and North America. In 2017 Kia has a better chance than ever of its - and Korea’s - first Mike Rutherford is WCA Vice-chairman, director and juror WCOTY title. based in the England THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS THE DAWN OF THE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

BY SIDDHARTH VINAYAK PATANKAR, DIRECTOR OF THE WORLD CAR AWARDS

It is increasingly true that technology largely helps make our cars safer, more reliable, efficient and more convenient. But when it came to autonomy there are many sceptics.

Many like to make a distinction here and are okay with driver aids – adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot warning, emergency braking, collision aversion, and yes self-parking. Indeed a lot of these functions are in fact autonomous and already in use. Yet many companies are now putting millions of dollars into researching the 100% self-driving or autonomous vehicles or AVs. An autonomous Hybrid tests in the snow

Google, Tesla, Apple are championing this new horizon us its Vision Next 100 Years Concept car a few months ago from the tech side of things, while OEMs are also now with a retracting steering column that allows the driver to looking to take a lead in this arena. The recently concluded hand over control to the car’s on board computer. Paris Motor Show had most manufacturers showing us concept cars that either had (or pointed to future models Volvo already has the Pilot Assist on its new S90/V90 and that would have) electric powertrains and AV capability. XC90 that allows the car to self-drive and keep its lane (although with driver inputs still required), and Ford has Mercedes-Benz has introduced us to its intent with the recently announced that it is developing a mass model AV announcement of a new sub-brand; EQ. BMW had showed for fleet/shared-ride use. Ford’s autonomous car will be ready by 2021 – just 5 years from now. It has already begun testing some of the technology it already has at hand – while further developing and enhancing it as it gets to the final product.

I got a glimpse into its early development just a few weeks ago when I drove – make that rode – on the early stage prototype of Ford’s AV. Based on the current generation Fusion hybrid, Ford’s autonomous car drove me through Ford’s Product Development Centre in Dearborn, Michigan. The retrofitted Fusion hybrid had lidar, radar and multiple Volvo’s Pilot Assist, already active on new S90/V90 modles cameras on board. Image: US Department of Transpartation

In addition, statistics also indicate that entails 450,000 bytes of data from connected vehicles, and 350,000 apps being downloaded – all in that minute.

So the world is transitioning from owning vehicles to owning/sharing them. Fears that these cars may be hacked into, or the software running them may crash, or that cars may not ‘talk’ to each other or the controlling central network effectively enough – are valid and need attention.

Uniformity of both regulation/policy and infrastructure BMW’s Vision Next 100 Years concept around the world will also be key. It is therefore a realm that many of us must also adapt to as reporting in this new The car works just fine and did three things I expected facet of automotive technology will indeed be something it would – it obeyed all traffic rules like signs and speed our consumers will be increasingly interested in. limits, it detected pedestrians and slowed or stopped as needed to give them right of way and it also erred on the Siddharth Vinayak Patankar is a WCA director and juror, side of caution when it came to other vehicles that were in based in India. traffic on the rote – driven by humans of course!

Here is why Ford and others are seeing a veritable goldmine here. Most studies indicate that while more and more buyers will seek greener transport, they are also increasingly moving towards shared rides, and the convenience of being able to use their time on the move for things other than driving.

In the United States alone, 30 new vehicles are sold every minute. In that very same minute though, there are 7 million miles driven by over 125,000 taxis/Ubers and 60,000 shared rides. Mercedes’ new EQ division demonstrates the brand’s intent THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS HAVE ELECTRIC VEHICLES REACHED THEIR TIPPING POINT?

BY GERRY MALLOY, CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD CAR AWARDS

When future historians transcribe the evolution of the “We’re now flipping the switch,” said Daimler CEO, Dieter automobile, it may well be that 2016 will be seen as the Zetsche, as he announced the launch of an electric product tipping point for the transition to electric vehicles. offensive that will cover all vehicle segments from the compact to the luxury class. Not just further electrification, which includes the on-board generation of electricity in hybrid form – that direction has been established for years – but full-on electric vehicles with energy supplied from an outside source such as the electricity grid or hydrogen for a fuel cell. The vehicles commonly referred to just as EVs.

They’re certainly nowhere near a tipping point in terms of sales as they account for a miniscule proportion of new vehicles sold globally each year – typically less than one percent. But the point does seem to have been reached where the automakers themselves have accepted the inevitability of a future that is substantially electric. Mercedes-Benz is ‘flipping the switch’ to electric power with its EQ sub-brand

If that acceptance has previously seemed half-hearted, it has Daimler AG plans to introduce at least 10 new battery- now turned to commitment for many, as was prominently powered electric vehicles to be marketed under a new EQ on display at the recent Mondial de l’Automobile auto show sub-brand, represented at the show by the Generation EQ in Paris. concept.

Several major automakers, particularly the Europeans, Beyond just vehicles, the EQ brand is said to encompass introduced or made significant announcements about a comprehensive electric ecosystem that includes new EVs at the show - not just concepts but forthcoming everything from fast-chargers to home-based lithium-ion production vehicles and, in some cases, EV sub-brands. energy storage units. THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS

In addition, Daimler’s Smart brand raised the EV ante with It’s expected to have a driving range of more than Renault, it’s new electric drive. whose Alliance partner Nissan builds the world’s best- selling EV, the Leaf. It showed a new version of its ZOE EV with a real-world driving range of about 300 km.

General Motors debuted its Ampera-e, a Euro version of the , which boasts a 383-km (283-mile) range. And BMW, which already has its i-brand, revealed a new i3 94Ah, whose 94 Ampere-hour battery range boosts its range by more than 50 percent

Audi CEO Rupert Stadler predicts that plug-in vehicles will account for 25 to 30 percent of Audi’s sales by 2025.

Audi’s e-tron Quattro concept previewed an electric SUV that is expected to reach production by 2018, and be followed by two more EVs wearing the e-tron sub-brand by 2020. Audi CEO Rupert Stadler predicted that plug- in vehicles (which could include plug-in hybrids) would account for 25 to 30 percent of Audi’s sales by 2025.

GM is tackling range, a crucial issue for EV buyers, with the For its part, Volkswagen unveiled its I.D. concept vehicle, 383km-ranging Opel Ampera-e which is expected to spawn a production version by 2020 – one of 30 battery-powered EVs said to be in VW’s plans. That focus on extending EV driving range is key to making the technology more acceptable to consumers and doing “This car will probably be revolutionary,” said Volkswagen so is critical for automakers. brand head, Herbert Diess; “It will probably have the same importance that the Beetle had in its age, or the Golf.” The fact is, the wholesale embracement of EVs is not being driven by consumer demand but by circumstance, politics and regulation. While EVs are an expedient means of responding to that trifecta of pressure points, they still must satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.

In their latest iterations, they do so in most respects – but for many of those customers, driving range and the ease and time requirement of recharging remain significant stumbling blocks. That’s the big challenge still facing the automakers.

Gerry Malloy is WCA co-founder, president, and director Herbert Diess on the Volkswagen I.D. concept; “It will probably have the same importance that the Beetle had in its age, or the Golf.” based in Canada 2017 JURORS BY COUNTRY

UNITED STATES UNITED KINGDOM CHINA GERMANY Tamara Warren Mike Rutherford Xia Dong Jens Meiners Matt Askari Richard Aucock Li Geng Stefan Anker Zac Estrada Nat Barnes Liu Hongcang Thomas Geiger Richard Homan Richard Bremner Cui Jun Greg Kable Jeff Jablansky Steve Fowler Miao Jun Yoshihiro Kimura Nick Kurczewski Charlie Turner William Wang Kun Peter Schwerdtmann Joe Lorio Kyle Fortune Sean X.h. Qiu Juergen Zoellter John Mccormick Yunqing Wang Jason Stein FRANCE Sven Xu KOREA Tim Stevens Sylvain Reisser Liang Zhaohui Charley Chae Jaclyn Trop Lionel Robert Joo-Sik Choi MEXICO CANADA MIDDLE EAST Oscar Sanabria AUSTRALIA Michel Deslauriers Mohamed Sheta Joshua Dowling Mark Richardson NETHERLANDS Paul Gover INDIA Henny Hemmes JAPAN Siddharth Vinayak Patankar SWEDEN Peter Lyon Dhruv Behl POLAND Robert Collin Shinichi Katsura Sirish Chandran Maciej Pertynski Yasuhiko Kawamura Renuka Kirpalani IRELAND Hideshi Matsuda Yogendra Pratap SLOVENIA Eddie Cunningham Goro Okazaki Hormazd Sorabjee Milos Milac Koji Ozawa SOUTH AFRICA RUSSIA AUSTRIA Hannes Oosthuizen Dmitry Barinov Stephan Schaetzl SPAIN Vladimir Soloviev ITALY Fernando Gomez Blanco Vitaly Tishchenko BRAZIL Alessandro Lago Manuel Gomez Blanco Ivan Vladimirov Jason Vogel Michael Taylor THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES PAVING THE WAY FOR NEW PLAYERS BY OLI NASH, HEAD OF AUTOMOTIVE NEWS AT PRIME RESEARCH UK

For as long as most in the auto industry will remember, A year down the line and views have changed somewhat. topics like ‘connected mobility’, ‘alternative powertrains’, Asked again in 2016, the majority agreed that tech ‘smartphone integration’ and ‘autonomous driving’ companies would become a threat in 10 to 15 years’ time, have been used to conjure a Utopian vision of future with only 18% suggesting that it would be within the next transportation. Initiatives have been backed, technologies five years. developed and PR campaigns planned around the idea that soon, just around the corner, any moment now, the public The data also shows us that OEMs are still seen very will be whizzing about in stylish electric pods; virtually much as the ‘key drivers’ towards the development of chauffeured while they update their social media profiles the ‘digital car’. The chart (below) actually shows Google and stream the latest vlogs through their connected on- and Apple as appearing more proactive/aggressive in board tablets. digital car development, but still swimming in the wake of manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BMW and It’s easy to be sceptical of such an ambitious vision, but Tesla. watching the events and trends of 2016, it’s clear that the wheels are really starting to turn. An authentic move This year, as we move out of the development phase and towards cleaner powertrains within the industry is already ‘future technologies’ are integrated into series production, happening, as evidenced by the biggest reveals of the recent it will be fascinating to see how the role of the major Paris Motor Show. Debates surrounding the realisation of technology players changes in the development of the autonomous driving are no longer only to be found on the truly digital car. As always, PRIME will be monitoring the pages and websites of tech and auto publications, but are media’s response with a close, analytical eye. seen frequently in national dailies around the world.

passive/conservative proactive/aggressive

OEMs themselves Last year, a great deal of attention was focussed on the (e.g. Toyota, Audi, Tesla, Established BMW, Mercedes-Benz) efforts of technology giants in the automotive sector. Companies like Google and Apple were positioned in the media as dynamic disruptors to traditional OEMs in the Automotive suppliers development of the ‘digital car’. PRIME Research’s most (e.g. Continental, Harman, Delphi) recent data shows that in 2015, the majority of the World Car Awards’ Jurors Panel agreed that tech companies such New tech-driven Chinese as Google and Apple would become a threat to OEMs within brands (e.g. Faraday Future) Other tech companies 2015 2016 the next five to ten years. 38% of the panel thought it would (e.g. Blackberry, CloudCar) Expert Panel Expert Panel happen within five years. -1 0 1 2 3 “Which companies will be the key drivers for the ‘digital car’?”

2015 2016  Expert Panel Expert Panel PARTNERS

MAJOR PARTNER

PRESENTING PARTNER PRESENTING PARTNER

HOST PARTNER

MEDIA PARTNER VOTE TABULATION

THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR: BEGAN IN PARIS SEPT. 29, 2016. ENDS IN NEW YORK APRIL 13, 2017.

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