The Ford Mustang Mach-E won the 2021 North American SUV of the Year Award. The award was presented at an online event on Monday as well as the North American Truck of the Year and Car of the Year awards.
The Mustang Mach-E is Ford’s first electric car designed, from the very beginning, to be completely electric. It is also the first four-door Ford to ever name the Mustang.
Winning Criteria
The prizes are voted on by a judge of 50 car journalists from publications and shows such as MotorWeek, CNet, Car and Drive selecting brand new and redesigned cars for the new year. This year, 43 models were eligible for the award and more than half of them were some kind of SUV, said Gary Witzenburg, president of North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year Awards.
The awards committee narrowed those down to three finalists for each of the three awards.
Mustang Mach-E Luxury SUV
For the SUV Award of the Year, Mach-E beat the Genesis GV80, Hyundai’s largest luxury SUV, and Land Rover Defender, already named “SUV of the Year” by Motor Trend, car enthusiasts.
“The Mustang Mach-E leapfrogs European [electric vehicles] as the Tesla Model Y’s most formidable challenger yet,” said Detroit News auto critic Henry Payne, one of the jurors.
Mach-E costs the same price as the Model Y and also offers the same performance.
Ford also won a new F-150 Truck of the Year Award, downplaying the truck Ram 1500 TRX and a new Jeep Gladiator van, based on a Jeep Wrangler. The new F-150 has a lot of features added after Ford researchers tagged F-150 owners and watched them use their trucks at work, said Kumar Galhotra, president of the United States and Ford International marketing team. For example, after noticing that drivers were sleeping in their trucks, fully reclining front seats were created that go down completely flat like a cot.
The redesigned Hyundai Elantra, winning the Car of the Year award, hits the luxury G80 and Nissan Sentra.
While some carmakers are abandoning the automotive market altogether due to declining sales, José Muñoz, an official at Hyundai, said the Korean car manufacturer is still committed to that segment of the market. Young consumers, in particular, still prefer smaller, less expensive cars like the Elantra, he said.
“We strongly believe in this segment and will continue to invest and make good products within it,” he said.
