E-Class emerges 2017 World Luxury Car
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class has been declared the 2017 World Luxury Car. This was disclosed at a press conference hosted by the New York International Auto Show, Bridgestone Corporation, and Autoneum,
This year’s winner was chosen from an initial entry list of nine prestigious cars from all over the world, then a short list of three finalists as announced in Geneva last month: the BMW 5 Series, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and the Volvo S90 / V90.
It would be recalled that Mercedes-Benz made history in 2015 with a triple win in three out of five categories: World Car of the Year (C-Class), World Luxury Car (S-Coupe) and the World Performance Car (AMG GT).
This is the 3rd World Luxury Car win for Mercedes-Benz having captured today’s title, plus two back-to-back titles in 2015 (Mercedes-Benz S-Coupe) and 2014 (Mercedes-Benz S-Class).
Vehicles in all award categories are selected and voted on by an international jury panel comprised of 75 top-level automotive journalists from 23 countries around the world. Each juror was appointed by the World Car Steering Committee on the basis of his or her expertise, experience, credibility, and influence.
Each juror typically drives and evaluates new vehicles on a regular basis as part of their professional work. Through their respective outlets they collectively reach an audience of many millions world-wide. The international accounting firm KPMG tabulates the jurors’ ballots.
Previous World Luxury Car winners were the BMW 7 Series (2016), the Mercedes-Benz S Coupé (2015) and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (2014). The award was first created in 2014 to acknowledge higher-priced premium models selling in more limited numbers worldwide.
The Road to 2017 World Car declaration which began in Paris on September 29 last year, was followed by test-drives in Los Angeles in November, continued in Geneva with the Top Three in the World announcement, and finally ended last weekend with the declaration of the winners in six categories at the New York International Auto Show.
2017 marks the 11th anniversary of the partnership between World Car and the New York show, and the fourth consecutive year that the World Car Awards have retained their ranking as the number one automotive awards program in the world in terms of media reach.
The Global Trends Report, co-presented annually by Prime Research and Autoneum, was also released today.The report is the culmination of research and insights across the past six months.
Autoneum CEO Martin Hirzel said, “The auto industry is in the midst of an upheaval that goes far beyond anything it has experienced in the past 100 years. Emerging industry trends such as autonomous driving, electric mobility and connected cars are changing not only vehicles and their technologies, but also their concepts and forms.
As the market leader in acoustic and thermal management for vehicles, Autoneum today already offers a large variety of multifunctional and lightweight technologies and components to meet the requirements of modern mobility.
MIKE OCHONMA