Tata Nano Wins Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) Award

The Tata Nano has won the prestigious Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) award. In its fifth year running and modeled along the lines of the American, European and Japanese Car of the Year, the ICOTY award and Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY) award have been instituted by leading automotive magazines in India, in association with JK Tyre, to bring the auto industry in India at par internationally in recognising their efforts.

The awards are an expert and independent judgment of all new cars and motorcycles launched in the calendar year in India. An 11-member specialist jury consisting of senior automobile journalists from leading automobile magazines in India got together to vote for the most impressive car and motorcycle on similar parameters to acclaimed international awards for automotive excellence.

After the jury rounds the Tata Nano emerged as the Indian Car of the Year.

The Managing Director of Tata Motors, Mr. P.M. Telang, received the award from the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of JK Tyre Industries Ltd., Dr. R. P. Singhania, at a ceremony in New Delhi on December 20.

This time there was a close contest for the ICOTY award and after all points were tabulated, it was the Tata Nano with 63 points that emerged the victor. Though several vehicles qualified for the 2010 ICOTY, the ten finalists selected by the jury, besides the Tata Nano, were the Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Jazz, Fiat Linea, Fiat Grande Punto, Maruti Suzuki Ritz, Mahindra Xylo, Skoda Superb, Tata Indigo Manza, and Toyota Fortuner.

The expert jury members of the 2010 ICOTY included Yogendra Pratap and Vikrant Singh of Auto Bild India, Gautam Sen and Bob Rupani of Auto India, Bijoy Kumar Y and Srinivas Krishnan of Business Standard Motoring, Aspi Bhathena of Car India, Sirish Chandran and Bertand D’souza of Overdrive and Vardhan Kondvikar and Girish Karkera of Top Gear India. All these jury members evaluate and test cars as part of their journalistic work and are known for their analytic skills and professional competence. Once a year they come together to vote for the ICOTY.

Source: Tata Motors