The Mach-E Mustang is Ford’s first electric vehicle designed, from the start, to be fully electric. It is also the first four-door vehicle that Ford named Mustang.
The awards are voted on by a jury of 50 automotive journalists from publications and programs such as MotorWeek, CNet and Car and Driver, who make their selections among all-new and substantially redesigned vehicles for the new model year. This year, 43 models were eligible for the award and more than half of them were some type of SUV, said Gary Witzenburg, president of the North American Cars, Trucks and SUVs Award.
The award committee reduced the three finalists for each of the three awards.
For the SUV of the Year award, the Mach-E won the Genesis GV80, a large luxury SUV produced by Hyundai, and the Land Rover Defender, which had previously been named “SUV of the Year” by Motor Trend, an automotive enthusiast magazine.
“The Mach-E Mustang surpasses Europe [electric vehicles] as Tesla Model Y’s most formidable challenger, “said Henry Payne, auto critic at Detroit News, one of the judges.
The Mach-E is priced similarly to the Model Y and also offers similar performance.
Ford also won the Truck of the Year Award for the new F-150, beating the Ram 1500 TRX performance truck and the new Jeep Gladiator pickup, based on the Jeep Wrangler. The new F-150 has several features available which were added after Ford researchers tagged along with F-150 owners and saw them use their trucks at work, said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford’s international and Americas group. For example, after realizing that drivers were dozing in their trucks, fully reclining front seats were created that fall completely flat like a cradle.
The redesigned Hyundai Elantra won the Car of the Year award, beating the full-size Genesis G80 luxury car and the Nissan Sentra compact car.
While some automakers are abandoning the compact car market altogether due to falling sales, José Muñoz, chief operating officer of Hyundai, said the Korean automaker is still committed to that market segment. Younger buyers, in particular, still prefer small, cheap cars like the Elantra, he said.
“We firmly believe in this segment and will continue to invest and create great products within it,” he said.