Irish Car of the Year win is latest award for EV6
The Irish Car of the Year 2022 title for the Kia EV6 adds another award for a car that is gaining accolades almost as quickly as it accelerates.
Kia also won the award in 2020 for the Soul, making them back to back winners as there was no award last year.
There is no better way of knowing what a car is like than using it day to day, and that is what Criostoir Sleator of Sleator Kia in Mullingar has been doing for months now.
As the dealer principal, Criostoir is not going to talk down the EV6, but his enthusiasm for it is genuine.
“I’ve been driving the new EV6 since October last year up , and I have been charging it at work or at home.
“I believe the EV6 is the best car Kia ever built. It's the first EV I’ve driven that you cannot tell what is powering it.
“The car drives and feels like a heavy, solid, fast, luxury car and the comfort on long journeys is unrivalled by any other Kia.”
That is praise to match that of the Irish Car of the Year judges, as well as their counterparts in other countries, as the EV6 just last week won in the ‘Family SUV and Crossover’ category at the Trophée de L’argus awards 2022 in France.
Those latest wins follow multiple awards the EV6 has already earned from various leading industry publications and experts across Europe: winner of 2022 What Car? ‘Car of the Year’ awards; ‘Crossover of the Year’ at the TopGear.com 2021 awards; ‘Premium’ winner in the German Car of the Year 2022 awards; and joint winner of the inaugural ‘Best Cars of the Year’ 2021/2022 awards.
The EV6 has also been shortlisted in the 2022 European Car of the Year awards, the winner of which is to be announced on February 28.
Ronan Flood, managing director of Kia Ireland, said: “We are honoured to receive this award. The competition was extremely tough this year as there are so many new high profile entrants to the market.
“It is to the credit of our designers and engineers who created this cutting-edge model that the EV6 emerged as the choice of the jurors for this year’s Irish Car of the Year.
“I would like to thank the members of the ICOTY jury who recognised the unique characteristics of this car and also the Kia customers who are queueing to get their hands on it.”
The Continental Irish Car of the Year award was established in 1978. It is organised and judged by the Irish Motoring Writers Association (IMWA) and Association of Professional Motoring Press (APMP) a grouping of Irish motoring journalists drawn from all over Ireland.
This year 34 models qualified for the award and seven segment winners emerged from those, from which the EV6 was chosen as the overall winner.