The World Car of the Year 2022 poll shows how upside-down electric cars are (comment)

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• The electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 became the world car of the year

• Electric cars also dominated other categories, such as the best luxury car of the year or the best sports car

• The only category in which the car with an internal combustion engine won was the best city car

• At the same time, electric cars have the greatest real benefit in city traffic

The World Car of the Year 2022 poll knows its winners. The absolute became electric Hyundai Ioniq 5. This is no surprise, nor is it the first time that the title of the world’s best car has been won by an electric car. As early as 2019, the Jaguar I-Pace won the same title. However, other categories are worth noting, as they point to the current somewhat paradoxical trend. Although the real benefit of electric cars is clearly the greatest when operating on short routes, ie in the city, small urban electric cars are still more in the background of car interest.

The best design of 2022? Chosen among Ioniq 5, Audi e-tron GT, Kiou EV6, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Mercedes-Benz EQS. Of the five finalists, three electric cars were luxury cars. EQS won. In the ranking of the main category, electric cars finished in the first three places. The Audi e-tron GT won the sports car category when, according to the expert jury, it proved better than the new BMW M3 / M4, Toyota GR86 or also Porsche 911 GT3.

The only category where electric cars failed was city cars. She won here Toyota Yaris Cross. In addition, no model that was sold only as an electric car was among the five finalists. In addition to the aforementioned Toyota, Renault Kiger, Dacia Sandero, Volkswagen Taigun and Opel Mokka advanced to the finals. It is an interesting, from the position of a carmaker logical, but from a practical point of view quite a strange trend.

The carmakers have already embarked on electric cars on a large scale, there is no doubt about that, as evidenced by the fact that electric cars are starting to win similar polls in the main categories. However, the current technical possibilities do not allow to build a small city electric car, which would have a reasonable range, the price was not close to a million, which in practice could cope with cars with internal combustion engines and whose production would bring the carmakers a profit. Sure, a few small electric cars can be bought now, but they are either expensive or involve a lot of trade-offs as it does. shows Dacia Spring.

Manufacturers’ attention in the field of electric cars is simply focused on higher segments and larger cars. It has a number of advantages. For example, they can hold large batteries, so they can offer a decent range. Above all, however, the surcharge for expensive electric propulsion is much better hidden in the price of a car whose combustion equivalent costs over a million than in the price of a Yarisu Cross-type car, which starts with 455,000. While at prices around two million, a dilemma awaits undecided customers when they can buy for example the BMW i4 M50 i BMW M440i xDrive Gran Coupe, this does not apply to small city cars. A truly competitive city electric car comparable to ordinary cars, not only in terms of quality, but above all in terms of price, is still to be seen.

But it is precisely the city traffic where electric cars are the most efficient, the most comfortable to drive and where their operation undoubtedly has the greatest benefit. From the point of view of manufacturers, the current situation is completely logical, but from the point of view of common sense, it seems a bit that the transition to electromobility was, due to a number of circumstances, taken the opposite end.

By the way, shouldn’t the category looking for the best electric car be abolished in the World Car of the Year poll and replaced by the category of the best car with an internal combustion engine?