Three jury members of Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year were invited to Korea to present the trophy to Kia for the Kia EV9 winning the 2024 supreme award.
The judges – Shereen Shabnam from UAE, Nicole Wakelin from the USA and Sandy Myhre from New Zealand – presented the trophy to Mr Teckkoun Kim, Head of Kia Design Next Group – at the Busan International Mobility Show.
It was clear that winning the award was significant to Kia and Mr Kim commented that the win will help the recognition of the EV9. “It gives another twist to customers when juries like yours recognize the EV9 because you are the experts and you know which EV or vehicle works for the consumer experience,” he said.
WWCOTY delegation was also interviewed for Kia’s official social media channels including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Excerpts from the interview will likely be used in a promotional video collaboration with Bloomberg Media and will be featured on their websites.
The three Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year jury members were also the subject of an extensive television interview by Michael Choo of Kia Brand Communications. The theme of the interview was ‘How Kia EV9 became the supreme winner of the WWCOTY award’.
Sandy Myhre (NZ) gave a short history of the awards and discussed how many jury members there are today. She emphasised the rigorous process adopted by the voting system and said, in the end, the EV9 was a clear winner for 2024.
Shereen Shabnam (UAE) discussed the various unique design aspects of the EV9 from the lowered hipline which creates better vision from inside the car to the ‘star’ cluster headlights which are another unique feature of the SUV.
Nicole Wakelin (USA) talked about the wheel design which, again, is unique and how the sporty spoke image produces an interesting geometric graphic on the surface of the wheel.
All three judges spoke of the significance of the WWCOTY Award and what it will mean to Kia customers around the world.