New York used to be one of the biggest trade fairs on the automotive industry calendar. But in the meantime, the annual ritual on the Hudson River has risen far – mainly because of the loss of importance of Detroit, Geneva and Paris. Even an international audience can be seen, not least because of the presentation of the “World Car of the Year” award, traditionally on the morning of the first press day.
And a Korean has cleared the competition: The Hyundai Ioniq 6 not only took overall victory, but was also awarded “World Electric Vehicle” and for the “World Car Design of the Year”. The Lucid Air was the luxury car of the year, the Kia EV6 GT was named “World Performance Car” – and the city car of the year was the only combustion engine, the Citroën C3. But what could be interpreted as the triumph of electromobility is with the Ioniq 6 is in truth probably more of a triumph of design, of a particularly elegant and overall successful car. A look at the respective top 3 gives a very differentiated picture. Because in the “Performance” categories, pure combustion engines took 2nd and 3rd place, in “Luxury”, “Urban” and also in the main category “WCOTY” two of the three candidates are at least optionally or even exclusively available with combustion engines. All cars that were only recently introduced and are likely to be built for a long time. Important premieres in New York This picture also emerges from the trade fair as a whole, which at least had a few important premieres to offer. For example, the futuristic Hyundai Kona, which is entering its second model generation with a variety of drives. A pure electric car is the Kia EV9; it is based on the successful E-GMP platform. The third Korean premiere is the Genesis GV80 Coupe Concept, a fascinating preview of the series.E-pickup with 229 kWh batteryThe cult brand Ram is showing a fully electric, conservatively designed flatbed truck called the REV 1500, which is equipped with a 168 kWh battery or an even more powerful 229 kWh battery – that’s about the size of two Mercedes EQS batteries. The latter variant should allow a range of up to 500 miles or 800 kilometers. If you want even more, you have to wait for the range extender with a petrol engine, which will crown this electric series. It remains to be seen whether the owners of the legendary Cummins diesel variant will be convinced of this. In interviews, Stellantis managers complained about the enormous costs of electric mobility. The need to keep mobility affordable is served much better by the Chevrolet brand, which is bringing the compact Trax back onto the market – with prices starting at 21,495 US dollars (approx. 19,500 Euro). The model is explicitly aimed at entry-level customers. Jeep reworked the famous Wrangler, which is available with four, six and eight cylinders. The special variants include the four-cylinder plug-in hybrid on the one hand and a six-cylinder with a classic manual transmission on the other. Subaru has revised the Crosstrek, the successor to the XV based on the Impreza with a four-cylinder boxer engine. At Volkswagen there was the facelifted Atlas SUV, which lost its VR6 but gained in terms of equipment and design. The other German brands were conspicuous by their absence, their presentation left to local dealers. And that is usually risky: The sophisticated BMW XM, one of whose main stylistic features is its color concept, was paradoxically shown in black with a black “contrast” bar. (cen/jm)
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