November 15, 2016
LOS ANGELES – General Motors’ Bolt electric car is among the finalists for the 2017 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year (NACTOY) awards announced here Tuesday at Automobility L.A., the conference that precedes the Los Angeles auto show.
In what promises to be an interesting matchup, the modestly priced EV is competing for NACTOY honors with two lavishly appointed and beautifully designed large luxury sedans, the Genesis G90 and Volvo S90.
The Truck of the Year contest includes pickups of all sizes and light- and medium-duty commercial vans. The field now is narrowed to Ford’s burly but sophisticated F-Series Super Duty; the Nissan Titan, a traditional fullsize pickup available with a long list of options and an interior nicer than many luxury cars; and the Honda Ridgeline, a smaller more car-like personal-use pickup with advanced user-experience features, including a pickup box that turns into a giant boom box.
The Utility of the Year is a new award for 2017 designed to separate pickups and commercially oriented trucks from enormously popular CUVs and minivans.
The finalists in this category are FCA’s new Chrysler Pacifica minivan, the Jaguar F-Pace and the Mazda CX-9.
The 2017 Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the year will be announced Jan. 9 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The awards honor excellence in innovation, design, safety, performance, technology, driver satisfaction and value. Initiated in 1994, they are judged by about 60 professional automotive journalists from the U.S. and Canada who work for magazines, television, radio, newspapers and websites.
Jurors evaluate dozens of new vehicles that went on sale this year to determine the finalists.
The process of selecting the Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the year starts in June by identifying vehicles eligible for the awards. It includes three rounds of voting.
The voting for finalists and winners is tallied by accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.
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