Detroit — The envelope, please. . . .
The winners of the 2022 North American Automobile, Truck, and SUV of the 12 months are:
- Automobile of the 12 months: 2022 Honda Civic
- Truck of the 12 months: 2022 Ford Maverick
- SUV of the 12 months: 2022 Ford Bronco
The winners had been whittled from an preliminary record of 36 eligible automobiles, vans and utility autos. The finalists tracked tendencies within the trade as customers have moved from automobiles to SUVs and embraced the off-road way of life. Following the success of electrical automaker Tesla — and below strain from essentially the most onerous federal rules in 60 years — producers are additionally flooding the market with new EVs.
The Civic beat out the Lucid Air and VW Golf GTI/Golf R. Automobiles have fallen out of favor within the American market with Detroit manufacturers like Ford and Chrysler exiting the sedan market utterly. However automobiles are nonetheless key quantity segments for international makers and icons just like the Civic and and Golf boast close to luxury-grade electronics tech to go along with their whip-quick dealing with. Startup makers like Lucid see alternatives to determine themselves within the EV market with lovely, halo sedans.
The Maverick took the truck crown over the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Rivian R1T. EV nominees had been most prevalent within the truck class, the place startup and legacy automakers alike see a possibility to make use of maximize the efficiency of electrical motors’ torque.
Heavy favourite Bronco received over the Genesis GV70 and Hyundai Ioniq 5. SUVs are America’s favourite non-pickup automobile and now take 70% of the market versus 30% for automobiles.
Judged by a panel of fifty impartial journalists (together with the writer of this text) from the U.S. and Canada, the NACTOY awards are amongst North America’s most prestigious prizes. Jurors convened in Ann Arbor in October for a comparability drive of semi-finalists, then introduced finalists final November.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit Information. Discover him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.