The Jaguar I-Pace made history when it won the 2019 World Car of the Year, as well as the 2019 World Car Design of the Year and the 2019 World Green Car of the Year trophies in New York a few days ago. While several cars have enjoyed multiple nominations in the past, it is the first time in the 15 year awards' history that a single product has won 3 awards at once. Jaguar had done a double previously with the F-Pace SUV winning 2017 World Car of the Year and 2017 World Car Design of the Year. The previous year, the same two awards had been won by the Mazda MX-5 (Miata). But the only manufacturer to have won 3 trophies at the same ceremony before has been Mercedes-Benz, though all three were for different cars. In 2015, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class was World Car of the Year, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupé had won the World Luxury Car title, and the Mercedes-AMG GT had snapped up World Performance Car.
Also Read: 2019 WCOTY Winners List
The Audi A6 was the first ever WCOTY in 2005. Audi has 10 wins across categories, BMW has 8, Mercedes-Benz has 7. VW has most WCOTY titles though, at 4.
While Audi won the inaugural World Car of the Year title in 2005 for the third generation A6 sedan, the car maker with most wins for that award is Volkswagen. The VW Golf Mk6 won in 2009, the previous gen Polo won in 2010, the up! in 2012 and Golf Mk7 in 2013. Audi has won the most number of awards across categories though, with 10 trophies between 2005 and 2019. Its most recent wins were back-to-back World Luxury Car titles in 2018 and this year. BMW has won 8 titles and is the only manufacturer to have won in every single category over the years with one World Car win, 3 Green Car awards, and one each for Design, Performance, Luxury and Urban Car of the Year. Overall Mercedes-Benz then has 7 wins though has never won for Design or Urban. JLR also has 7, but has never won Performance, Green, Urban or Luxury. VW has 6 wins, though that includes the most World Car titles as I said.
Strength of the Japanese. Lexus LS 460 was WCOTY 2007, Mazda 2 in 2008, Nissan Leaf in 2011. Suzuki's only win: Jimny is World Urban Car 2019
The Asian brigade has begun to fare well off late, with the likes of Hyundai and Kia now beginning to make it to the finalists, but no Korean car has as yet won any award. The Japanese brands have done much better. Nissan has won 3 trophies overall, which includes the first gen Leaf EV bagging World Car in 2011. The Lexus LS 460 gave Toyota Group its maiden WCOTY win in 2007, though Toyota has also won twice in the Green Car category since. Honda has also won two times for Green, and it is also that very category that has given Tesla its only win so far. The Tesla Model S won World Green car of the Year in 2013. Porsche holds the record for most wins in the Performance Car space with 5 wins so far. JLR has 5 Design trophies, with three wins on the trot since 2017. Citroen and Audi have won design two times each.
Porsche won the first of its 5 Performance Car titles for the Cayman S in 2006. Tesla's only win: Model S was Green Car in 2013. Citroen has 2 wins for Design; C4 Cactus won in 2015
The World car Awards added Performance, Green and Design categories in their second year (2006). The Luxury Car category was added in 2014, and the Urban Car title is just 3 years old. In 2018 the awards also instituted the World Car Person of the Year title, which has so far been awarded to Hakan Samuelsson, CEO, Volvo Cars and Sergio Marchionne, CEO, FCA (posthumously) this year.
