Tata Nano Wins 'Indian Car of the Year' Award

'Indian Motorcycle of the Year' Award Goes to Kawasaki Ninja 250R

In its fifth year running and modelled on the lines of the American, European and Japanese Car of the Year, the leading automotive magazines in India, in association with JK Tyre, presented the Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) and Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY) awards on December 21 at New Delhi.

After the jury rounds, the Tata Nano emerged as the Indian Car of the Year and Kawasaki Ninja 250R trounced the competition to win the coveted title of Indian Motorcycle of the Year.

The awards were presented by Vice Chairman & MD of JK Tyre Industries Ltd - Dr R P Singhania to the senior management of Tata Motors, the manufacturer of Nano and the senior management of Bajaj Auto, the manufacturers of Kawasaki Ninja 250R. The well-attended and glittering ceremony held in Delhi witnessed the electrifying performance by Sivamani, Louis Banks and Niladri.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Dr Singhania said, "This award truly reflects the choice of the experts. At JK Tyre, it has always been our endeavour to associate with and award the excellence in auto industry - be it motor sport or a class product. Today, India is the second largest manufacturer of two wheelers in the world and ranked 11th in the World Passenger Car market. These awards honour the intensive efforts of the auto manufacturers for their extensive research & development, designing excellence and innovation to bring out products that delight both the experts and the customers."

The expert jury members of the 2010 ICOTY included Yogendra Pratap and Vikrant Singh of Auto Bild India, Gautam Sen and Bob Rupani of Auto India, Bijoy Kumar Y and Srinivas Krishnan of Business Standard Motoring, Aspi Bhathena of Car India, Sirish Chandran and Bertand D'souza of Overdrive, and Vardhan Kondvikar and Girish Karkera of Top Gear India.

Past winners of the ICOTV have included the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Honda Civic, Hyundai i10 and Honda City.

This time there was a close contest for the ICOTY award and after all points were tabulated, it was the Tata Nano with 63 points that emerged the victor. The Skoda Superb was a close second in the rankings with 53 points and the Honda Jazz with 33 points was third.

Though several vehicles qualified for the 2010 ICOTY (Indian Car of the Year) awards, the ten finalists selected by the jury were the Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Jazz, Fiat Linea, Fiat Grande Punto, Maruti Suzuki Ritz, Mahindra Xylo, Skoda Superb, Tata Indigo Manza, Tata Nano and Toyota Fortuner.

The jury for IMOTV included Aspi Bhathena and Bunny Punia of Bike India, Bijoy Kumar of Business Standard Motoring, Girish Karkera and Debabrata Sarkar of Top Gear India, Vikrant Singh of Auto Bild and Shubhabrata Marmar and Bertrand D'souza of Overdrive.

The jury members also got together to vote for the special inaugural Indian Performance Motorcycle of the Year. In the IMOTY judging and voting, it was the Kawasaki Ninja 250R with 53 points that emerged as victor. The Yamaha YZF-R15 finished second getting 40 points and the TVS Apache RTR-180 with 37 points, was third.

The experts judged the cars and motorcycles on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, design, comfort, safety, manoeuvrability, performance, functionality, environmental responsibility and driver/rider satisfaction among others. In addition, technical innovation and value for money were particularly important factors while deciding on the winner.

All cars and motorcycles that qualify for this award are basically new models. Existing cars and motorcycles that have had cosmetic facelifts or small mechanical changes like different powertrains do not qualify for these awards. The country of origin does not matter, but they have to be sold in showrooms in India before 1st December 2009 and should have been homologated for Indian type approval.

Selection of the winner is by a simple voting system with each jury member having twenty-five points to allot to at least four cars and bikes each. They can give a maximum of 10 points to anyone of them.