Kia new K5 was selected as the 2020 AWAK Car of the Year in Korea. The new K5 was selected as the best car with 4948 points in the 2020 Car of the Year selected by the Automobile Writers' Association of Korea (Chairman Young-Sun Hah, Automobile Writers' Association of Korea, abbreviated as AWAK).
On the 7th, members of the Automobile Writers' Association of Korea conducted a performance vehicle test in Heyri, Paju on 11 candidates. The new K5 scored the highest score of 4948 and was selected as the Car of the Year, with Hyundai Motors The New Grandeur with 4744.5 in second place and the Volvo the New S60 with 4688 points third place.
The 4th place is the Hyundai Sonata with 4656 points, and the 5th place is the BMW 8 Series with 4561 points. The new K5 was selected for this year's design, the Kia Seltos for this year's SUV, the Jaguar I-PACE for this year's Environment Friendly, and the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door coupe for this year's performance category.
The 2020 Car of the Year was selected among domestic and imported cars launched in Korea in 2019. In 2019, fierce competition was expected as various new cars released with higher competitiveness than any other year. Hyundai Palisade was selected for the 2019 Car of the Year, and Kia Stinger was selected for the 2018 Car of the Year.
Among the 11 finalists for the year 2020, domestic cars and imported cars are evenly distributed in the rankings up to 5th place in the total score. In particular, despite the popularity of SUVs, all of the top 5 models were sedans, confirming that many brands released sedans with enhanced features and technology for the year 2019.
It is significant that Volvo, which surpassed the sales of 10,000 units for the first time in Korea in 2019, and BMW, which recovered from the fire issue, entered the top five. In particular, the new K5 was selected as the Car of the year and for the design of the year. The K5 highlighted the importance of the design this year.
It is worth noting the phenomenon that the Car of the Year also receives the design of the year; and that phenomenon has continued for the fourth year since the 2017 Car of the year. The 2017 Car of the Year Renault Samsung SM6, the 2018 Car of the Year Kia Stinger, and the 2019 Car of the Year Hyundai Palisade were all awarded Design of the Year.
This highlight that design is becoming more and more important. The fact that the top 5 cars of this year were all filled with sedans is also seen as a result of reflecting the importance of design. In particular, the new K5 received an overwhelmingly large number of votes in this year's design category and easily winning the 2nd crown.
Kia Motors Seltos did not get a high score in this year's Car of the Year selection, but it was selected as an SUV of the year and was recognized for its value. Although the Seltos is a compact SUV, its features exceed its class and received high marks. The rival car that competed with Seltos was the Lamborghini Urus.
In this year's Environment-Friendly category, Jaguar I-PACE and Tesla Model 3 competed fiercely, and I-PACE was finally selected. In this year's performance category, the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door coupe, Lamborghini Urus, and the new 8-series had a 3-way match, and the AMG GT 4-door coupe was finally selected.
2013 Kia Motors K9-Lexus New ES, 2014 Mercedes S-Class, 2015 Infiniti Q50, 2016 Hyundai Motor Avante, 2017 Renault Samsung SM6, 2018 Kia Motors Stinger, and 2019 Hyundai Motor Company Palisade were selected as Car of the Year. The 2020 Tea of the Year Awards Ceremony will be held on January 21 at 3 pm at the Korea Press Center.
