Volkswagen has won the World Car of the Year title for a record-extending 5th time. The Wolfsburg-based firm’s ID.4 electric crossover was chosen as the 2021 WCOTY by a jury of 93 motoring journalists, including Cars.co.za's Consumer Experience Manager, Hannes Oosthuizen, from 28 countries across the globe.

The Volkswagen ID.4was chosen ahead of the Honda-e and Toyota Yaris,the latter of which underpins the South Africa-bound Yaris GR, to take the overall honours in the 16th iterations of the World Car Awards, the winners of which were announced live on YouTube overnight.

In many ways, the Wolfsburg-based brand's battery-electriccompact crossover is more significant than its ID.3 hatchback sibling, because it is the first ID model to be rolled out in the US and China (in addition to some key European markets). While Volkswagen SA is evaluating the local viability of ID models with a small ID.3 test fleet, the ID.4 is morelikely to be launched in Mzansiin the near future.

This year’s winner was chosen from an initial entry list of 24 vehicles from all over the world. Vehicles eligible for the World Car of the Year award must beproduced in volumes of at least 10 000 units/year, must be priced below the luxury-car level in their primary markets, and must be “on-sale”in at least 2major markets, onat least 2separatecontinents, between 1 May 2020 and 1 May 2021.

The category winners of the 2021 World Car Awards, meanwhile, are:

World Urban Car of the Year– Honda e

Honda's cute little "e" electric city car was a finalist in 3 categories and was awarded the2021 World Urban Car trophy.

Although theHonda-efailed to win the overall 2021 WCOTY, the Japanese brand's pint-sized BEV (battery electric vehicle) was nominated in two other categories, one of which it won:World Urban Car.

Runners up:

Honda Jazz / FitToyota Yaris

World Luxury Car of the Year– Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class the king of luxury once again? We'll find out soon!

The S-Class represents the pinnacle of the Mercedes-Benz product line and apart from being an important part of the brand’s history, it also serves as the spearhead, as it were, for showcasing the latest and greatest technology currently in Merc’s arsenal. Local pricing details havealready been released for the new-generationMercedes-Benz S-Classand acorrespondent has already driven it overseas.

Runners-up

Land Rover DefenderPolestar 2

World Performance Car of the Year– Porsche 911 Turbo

The view most other road users will see– the 911 Turbo S offers unrivalled performance and dynamic capability at the price.

Whereas VWholds the record for the most number of overall WCOTY victories, Porsche has a firm grip on the World Performance Car of the Year title. Since the category was introduced in 2006, the Zuffenhausen-based brand has won it7 times, including this year, with the911 Turbo. We recently published a full review of the 911 Turbo S and Porsche SAannounced pricing for the 2021 GT3.

Runners-up:

Audi RS Q8Toyota GR Yaris

World Car Design of the Year– Land Rover Defender

We recently pitted the new Defender against the popular Toyota Prado in a comparative review (including this video).

Whereas the new-generationLand Rover Defenderquietly arrived on our shores last year it has made a bigimpact…We've compared the Solihull-made newcomerwith the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado and the Landywon the Premium SUV category in the 2020/21 Cars.co.za Consumer Awards– powered by WesBank. Later this year, the Defender line-upwill be bolstered by the arrival of a V8 version.

Runners-up:

Honda-eMazda MX30

Previous overall winners of the World Car of the Year programme includethe Audi A6 (2005), BMW 3 Series (2006), Lexus LS 460 (2007), Mazda2 (2008), Volkswagen Golf 6 (2009), Volkswagen Polo (2010), Nissan Leaf (2011), Volkswagen Up (2012), Volkswagen Golf 7 (2013), Audi A3 (2014),Mercedes-Benz C-Class (2015),Mazda MX-5 (2016),Jaguar F-Pace (2017),Volvo XC60 (2018) andJaguar I-Pace(2019) and Kia Telluride (2020).

Cars.co.za's Hannes Oosthuizen has served as WCOTY jury member for South Africa from 2006 to 2013 and 2016to the present day. What's more, two of Hannes' fellow South African WCOTY judges, Brenwin Naidu and Lerato Matebese, are veteran Cars.co.za Consumer Awards– powered by WesBank judges.

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