Maruti-Suzuki Victoris wins ICOTY 2026
At a glittering awards function held in New Delhi, Maruti-Suzuki walked away with the Indian Car Of The Year award for 2016 for their Victoris SUV. The Green Car by ICOTY was won by the Mahindra XEV 9e and the Premium Car by ICOTY was won by the Volkswagen Golf GTI. The Indian Motorcycle Of The Year was won by the TVS Apache RTX.
This was the fifth time that the country’s largest carmaker walked away with the award but the first time since the Vitara Brezza won back in 2019. Competition for the prizes was fierce this year with the Skoda Kylaq placed as first runner-up and the Mahindra XEV 9e coming in as second runner-up. Upon winning the award Hisachi Takeuchi, Managing Director, Maruti-Suzuki India Limited said that the company designed the new SUV to ‘have it all’ and Maruti-Suzuki as well as parent company Suzuki Motor was very proud to win this award.
The Indian Car Of The Year is India’s most prestigious automotive award and as mentioned by Chairman of the ICOTY Jury and Executive Editor, Motoring World magazine, Pablo Chaterji, “It is the only award you see on the rear windshields of cars.” He added that he believed that because of the credibility of the award given its diverse set of jury members across multiple publications, carmakers have been making better cars in order to win ICOTY.
This was a sentiment echoed by Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Chairman, JK Tyre, India’s largest tyre company that has supported ICOTY since the very inception of the award, “The evolution of India’s automotive industry is gaining remarkable transition, as the focus shifts toward sustainable technologies, intelligent mobility and stronger engineering capabilities. ICOTY and IMOTY recognises the machines that carry this vision into reality.”
With the automotive calendar for 2025 coming to a close, 2026 will also be a very busy year for India’s automotive industry. It will see the entry of a new player in the Sajjan Jindal led JSW Group entering the automotive space, the re-entry of the Renault Duster, Maruti’s first electric vehicle, the e VITARA and many more.
The Pioneer will be starting a dedicated automotive page — automotive news, views and reviews in the coming year.
