The 2021 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year jurors have decided, and the awards organizers have obliged, presenting us with the roster of finalists. Exactly nine vehicles were selected, three for each main category, so the second-to-last step in the process is now complete.
All we have to do is enjoy the coming holidays, start a (hopefully) better year when 2021 arrives, and keep a lookout for the winners on January 11th. For now, we can meet the nine finalists selected by the 2021 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year jury and perhaps decide on our own set of victors while the jurors deliberate (their final round of voting is officially programmed for January 2-4).
The year’s finalists have been announced in alphabetical order and are as follows. For the Car of the Year award, the decision will be made between the Genesis G80, Hyundai’s Elantra, and Nissan’s Sentra. Of note, there are no American entries for this category.
The Truck of the Year category will be very disputed this year, given the presence of the bestselling Ford F-150 and of two of the fans' favorites: Jeep’s Gladiator Mojave and the feisty Ram 1500 TRX.
For the Utility Vehicle of the Year category, there’s the Ford Mustang Mach-E, another entry from Genesis (the GV80 SUV), and the British off-road expert a.k.a. the Land Rover Defender.
“In this very challenging year, these nine vehicles emerged as our Finalists out of an unusually strong field of 27 Semifinalists,” said NACTOY president Gary Witzenburg. “Each one of them – especially the 15 in the ultra-competitive utility vehicle category – is excellent in nearly every way.”
Granted, the jurors will probably have a hard time deciding the winners in at least two of the categories – the “Car of the Year” section seems by far the easiest of the bunch.
Interestingly, there’s a chance the “Utility” award might get snatched by a fully electric vehicle. As far as the “Truck” section is concerned, anything can happen as the F-150 has unusually tough rivals for this edition.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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