Giltrap Group brands on top in World Car of the Year Awards
Volkswagen ID.4, Porsche 911 Turbo & Land Rover Defender take away the top prizes.
Apr 22, 2021
Three premium Giltrap Group automotive brands have won big at the prestigious 2021 World Car of the Year Awards, including the new all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 which was named supreme winner and will be available to Kiwi drivers within the next 12 months.
Land Rover and Porsche were further award recipients at this year’s event, with the reimagined Defender winning the World Car Design of the Year award, and the pulse-quickening 911 Turbo taking home the World Performance Car of the Year prize. Including Volkswagen, all three manufacturers have been multiple World Car of the Year award winners in the past.
Three premium motoring brands proudly distributed in New Zealand by the Giltrap Group have won prestigious World Car of the Year awards at this year’s event.
Taking out the top award, the Volkswagen ID.4 was crowned the 2021 World Car of the Year, as voted by 93 international journalists from 28 countries that make up the World Car Awards jury panel. The votes were tabulated by KPMG.
This year’s winner was chosen from an initial entry list of 24 vehicles from all over the world, then a short list of three finalists as announced in March. Two of the top three vehicles in contention were battery-electric models.
The Volkswagen ID.4’s win of the World Car of the Year award is the German manufacturer’s fifth win in the category, with two generations of Golf, the Polo and the UP! all having won the top prize in years past.
“We are particularly pleased about our ID.4 being named World Car of the Year,” says Ralf Brandstätter, CEO Volkswagen Cars. “Not only because it is one of the most important car awards in the world – but because the jury also honoured a great idea and a great team.”
Another German brand at the cutting edge of the industry, as voted by the international World Car of the Year panel, is Porsche. The famed sportscar manufacturer took home the 2021 World Performance Car award for the latest 992 generation 911 Turbo, which has arrived in New Zealand in recent weeks.
This is the seventh World Performance Car win for Porsche in the World Car Awards’ 17-year history. Representing the peak of both performance and coupe-style luxury in the carmaker’s stable of models, the 911 Turbo was selected as the best on offer from a list of nine performance car finalists.
Another vehicle proudly represented in the New Zealand market by the Giltrap Group is the recently reimagined Land Rover Discovery. No stranger to accolades since its arrival at the end of 2019, the new Defender was crowned 2021 World Car Design of the Year. This is the third time Land Rover has claimed the coveted prize following previous wins for both the Range Rover Velar and Evoque in past years.
This year, all the contenders competing in the other award categories were eligible for the World Car Design of the Year prize. A panel of seven automotive design experts reviewed the contenders to establish a shortlist of recommendations for the jurors’ final vote, made by the 93 international journalists that comprise the jury panel.
This year these design experts included talented judges from the likes of the Pforzheim Design School, France’s Sustainable Design School, the New School of Architecture, and Shiro Nakamura Design Associates.
Vehicles eligible for the World Car of the Year award must be produced in volumes of at least 10,000 units per year, must be priced below the luxury-car level in their primary markets, and must be “on-sale” in at least two major markets on at least two separate continents between May 1, 2020 and May 1, 2021.
Watch the 2021 World Car of the Year award winners announcement at youtube.com/worldcartv