Kia the kingdom Kia’s all-electric EV6 scoops top title in Continental Irish Car of the Year awards 2022

KIA was the big winner on Friday as it scooped the overall title of Continental Tyres Car of the Year for their stunning all-electric EV6.

Other car companies heading home happy from the event at the Aviva included Renault, BMW, Dacia, Opel, Mercedes and Citroen, who all collected various coveted awards.

After a pandemic-led hiatus the motor journalists congregated and awarded ten separate awards at the motor industry’s main event, which included Irish Van of the Year and the Service to the Industry award.

Compered by Newstalk’s Vincent Hall, Continental Tyres were once again the title sponsor allowing the annual event to get back on track after it was abandoned in 2020 and postponed last November.

While the gathered motoring journalists and industry heads were thrilled to be at a live event the reason we were all there was to find out the various winners.

The Dacia Sandero picked up the Compact Car of the Year trophy thanks to its new design, improved technology and the introduction of new petrol and LPG powertrains. It edged the award just ahead of the much-improved Hyundai i20 and the utterly brilliant and innovative Honda e.

The Citroen C4 (now in its third generation) was then announced as the winner of the Medium Car of the Year ahead of the CUPRA Leon, the DS3, the MG5 and the passenger version of the Volkswagen’s Caddy.

The gorgeous new 2nd-gen Opel Mokka was the fully-deserving winner of this year’s Small Crossover/SUV of the Year beating the Hyundai Bayon, the Mazda MX-30, Mercedes EQA, MG ZS and the Toyota Yaris Cross.

The Medium Crossover/SUV gong went to the all-new Renault Arkana pipping the CUPRA Formentor, Hyundai Tuscon, Nissan Qashqai and the Suburu Outback.

The group of death this year was the Large Car of the Year where six of the most talked about cars in the motor industry went head to head against one another.

The jurors voted and decided that the Kia EV6 was the winner just ahead of the Hyundai IONIQ 5, the Skoda Enyaq, Audi Q4 eTron, Toyota Highlander and Volkswagen ID.4.

The Luxury Car of the Year title went to Mercedes S Class ahead of its big brother the EQV, the utterly insane Audi GT eTron and the new BMW IX.

But BMW didn’t go home empty handed as their M3 and M4 models were joint winners of the Performance Car of the Year ahead of Toyota GR Yaris, the VW ID.4 GTX, the Peugeot PSE 508 and the Ford Puma ST.

The Continental Tyres Van of the Year award was shared between all three commercial vehicles using the same platform in the PSA group. They are Citroen’s e-Dispatch, Opel’s Vivaro-e and Peugeot’s e-Expert.

Also on the night a special Service to the Industry award was presents to Don Hall of Hall PR. Motormouth’s Daragh Keany was there to announce Don’s achievement, which was unanimously decided by this year’s ICOTY committee.

But the night was Kia’s as they went home with awards including the big one.