The Jaguar I-Pace wins World Car of the Year, World Green Car awards

• 

  The Jaguar I-Pace, my favorite of the current crop of BEVs. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

NEW YORK—On Wednesday morning, the Jaguar I-Pace won this year’s World Car of the Year award at the 2019 New York International Auto Show. It beat two other finalists, the Audi e-tron and Volvo’s S60 and V60 twins to top honors, as voted by a panel of 86 journalists from around the world. Disclosure: for the second year in a row, I was one of those judges. We were asked to score each eligible car on a range of attributes, including safety, the environment, performance, design, and value, but only for vehicles we actually drove. You can see the list of eligible vehicles for this year’s awards here. (Sorry, Tesla fans: the Model 3 is really rather good but went on sale too long ago to be considered for this year’s awards.)

I’m not surprised that the I-Pace won; as a battery electric vehicle it scored highly on its green credentials, it’s a joy to drive, and it looks stunning inside and out. Much of that can be said about the Volvos and the Audi, but if I had a place to charge it and I could afford one, the I-Pace would be my pick to replace our now-totaled Saabaru. (I don’t, can’t, and my wife gets to pick the next car anyway.)

The Audi and Jaguar were also contenders for the World Green Car award, joined by the Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel cell car. It also really impressed me with a great interior and a calming driving style despite my continued skepticism for hydrogen as a fuel. I’ve repeatedly complained that it’s taking the industry too long to get real about alternative powertrains, but the fact that two-thirds of the “green” cars were also finalists for the big trophy should be grounds for some optimism. In fact, as the Volvos are available as plug-in hybrid EVs, all three of the WCOTY finalists can be driven to the shops and back without burning a drop of gasoline.