Eleven cars representing ten manufacturers have been selected as finalists for the 2024 edition of the prestigious New Zealand Car of the Year award.
The selection embraces variety, spanning small cars, luxury cars, SUVs, fully electric, hybrid, and pure-petrol choices, and price points from under $30K to six figures.
Five fully battery-dedicated models feature, and another four fully embrace hybrid technology. The remaining two have both hybrid and pure petrol offerings within the range.
This shows that, despite reduced interest in electric vehicles on the sales charts over the past 12 months, the Car of the Year award’s administrator, the New Zealand Motoring Writers’ Guild, sees battery-involved mobility becoming ubiquitous in passenger cars.
“Whether it’s the fully electric experience, plug-ins, or self-contained hybrid systems so subtle that some drivers may not even know they are operating, we drive in an increasingly electric world,” says NZ Motoring Writers Guild president Robert Barry.
“That is being decided for us on a global scale.”
The finalist candidates are the Honda CR-V, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia EV9, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, MG 3, Polestar 4, Subaru Solterra / Toyota bZ4X, Suzuki Swift, Toyota C-HR, and Volvo EX30, in alphabetical order.
The latest Honda CRV and MG3 are in pure petrol and hybrid versions. The new Hyundai Santa Fe, the latest Toyota C-HR, the fourth-generation Suzuki Swift, and the 2024 iteration of the Mercedes E-Class are all fully hybrid models, the latter two with relatively gentle mild hybrid assist.
The Kia EV9, Polestar 4, Subaru Solterra/Toyota bZ4X and Volvo EX30 are all pure electric machines.
Particular to the 2024 finalists list is the single listing for the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra.
“The car was a conjoined effort by these brands, each with its product line, which we find to be common for all but minor specification and styling amendments, so therefore, in our eyes, the two stand as one,” Barry says.
As usual, this latest crop of finalists has been selected from a more comprehensive list of all-new models launched in New Zealand in the past 12 months.
Guild members nationwide will continue evaluating the finalists into early 2025. In February 2025, the winner will be announced live on TVNZ One’s Seven Sharp programme.
Guild members assess the finalists on a specified range of criteria, including how the vehicle performs its intended role, its styling, interior design, and accommodation, fit, finish, and quality, ride and refinement, performance, road-holding and handling, value for money, active and passive safety, and environmental responsibility.
The winning finalist will follow the current titleholder, the MG4, to become New Zealand’s latest Car of the Year and the 37th new model to secure the country’s most prestigious new car honour.