Hyundai Avante Recognized in US Market, Wins North American Car of the Year Award This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Hyundai Motor's Avante has achieved the honor of being selected as the 'Car of the Year' in the North American market, the largest battleground in the global automotive market.

Hyundai Motor announced on the 11th (local time) at the '2021 North American Car of the Year (NACTOY)' online awards ceremony that the Hyundai Avante (local name Elantra) was finally selected as the North American Car of the Year in the passenger car category.

In the passenger car category of this year's 'North American Car of the Year,' Hyundai Avante, Genesis G80, and Nissan Sentra were the final nominees, engaging in a fierce competition. The Avante was chosen as the final winner, highly praised for its innovative design and advanced safety and convenience features. The organizers stated, "We highly evaluated the innovative design applying the Parametric Dynamics theme, advanced convenience features such as the digital key, and excellent fuel efficiency" as the reasons for the selection.

The 'North American Car of the Year' is known as the Oscars of the automotive industry and is the world's most prestigious automotive award ceremony. The industry evaluates that this prestige comes from trust and fairness. Established in 1994, the North American Car of the Year selection committee consists of about 50 experts working in automotive magazines, TV, radio, and newspaper industries in the United States and Canada, selecting the best car released each year.

This is the second time Hyundai Avante has won the North American Car of the Year since 2012. Since the award's establishment in 1994, only two vehicles, the Chevrolet Corvette and Honda Civic, have won more than once. With this award, Hyundai has achieved the honor of producing the Car of the Year five times, following the 2009 Genesis, 2012 Hyundai Avante, 2019 Genesis G70 and Hyundai Kona. Including last year's Kia Telluride award, Hyundai Motor Group's total awards have reached six as of this year.

Notably, this year, following last year, Korean cars were the most frequently nominated finalists. In the passenger car category, Avante and Genesis G80 were included, and in the SUV category, the GV80 was a finalist. More than half of the six total passenger car and SUV finalists were Korean brand vehicles.

The Hyundai Avante, which received this honor, was first unveiled globally last year in Los Angeles, USA. It is a 4-door coupe-style sedan themed on Parametric Dynamics design and is the first compact sedan to feature advanced functions such as wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and a digital key. This year, the lineup was expanded by adding hybrid and high-performance N Line models, broadening customer choices.

A Hyundai Motor official said, "With this award confirming Avante as the strongest compact model, we expect it to lead sales in the US passenger car market and show great performance in the global market."