The ultra-sleek Hyundai Ioniq 6 has been named the AA Ireland car of the year award. The official gong was handed to Hyundai at a ceremony in Croke Park, on Friday the 6th of October. It’s the second big win for the Ioniq 6, following on from it taking home the World Car Of The Year award back in April.
The Ioniq 6 did have something of a fight on its hands, though. It had to fend off competition from two Chinese brands, with the MG 4 hatchback and the BYD Atto 3 crossover running the four-door Ioniq 6 close in the final vote.
However, the Hyundai was victorious and it feel rather good to be announcing that a four-door saloon, rather than a bulky SUV, has picked up a major award.
The Ioniq 6 was not the only winner on the day, as the AA Ireland awards also recognises the best cars in individual categories. Unlike the overall winner, these cars do not have to have been launched onto the Irish market in the past 12 months, but can simply be the best cars in their class.
The Volkswagen e-Up won the best City Car award, followed in its category by the Fiat 500e and Toyota Aygo-X. In the Supermini class, the Skoda Fabia won, followed by the Peugeot 208 and Toyota Yaris, while in the Family Hatchback class, the recently-updated Ford Focus won over the VW ID.3 and Peugeot 308, proving that sometimes simplicity really is the best thing.
The Skoda Superb once again took home the best Large Family Car award, fighting off internecine competition from the Skoda Octavia, and a strong showing from Toyota’s new Prius. Toyota did pick up the best Small Crossover award, with the Yaris Cross, which beat out the Ford Puma and the all-electric Jeep Avenger.
Renault’s Austral took the best Medium Crossover, ahead of the BYD Atto 3 and the Nissan Qashqai, while Skoda was again triumphant in the Large Crossover category, ahead of the Nissan X-Trail and Kia Sorento.
In the Performance class, BMW reigned supreme with the rapid new M2, which saw off the likes of the Audi e-Tron GT and RS3, while the Munich company also took home the best Compact Executive prize, with the electric i4 finishing ahead of the Tesla Model 3 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
The best Large Executive was the Mercedes-Benz EQE (which finished ahead of the BMW 5 Series and its own brother, the new E-Class).
For those keeping an eye on the pennies, the MG 4 won the best Budget EV award, beating the Jeep Avenger and BYD Atto 3, while the Atto 3 put in another good showing in the Family EV category, but it was beaten by the Skoda Enyaq, which also finished ahead of the Hyundai Ioniq 6.
The final category was the Luxury EV award, which went to the BMW i7, ahead of the Mercedes-Benz EQS and the Audi e-Tron GT.
