Over the past two decades, the Indian Car of the Year or ICOTY as it is popularly known as, has risen to become India’s most prestigious automotive award and one that’s also been in the news internationally, given its credibility, format and the well-established jury that picks winners each year. JK Tyre has been title sponsor for the ICOTY right from the award’s inception, back in 2005, and continues to support the award, helping add more weightage and credibility. And the 20th ICOTY award has been picked up by the Mahindra Thar ROXX, an SUV that can be termed as the biggest disruptor of the year that was. What’s also worth noting is that the Thar ROXX has won the ICOTY 2025 after a very closely fought battle with the recently launched, fourth generation Maruti Suzuki DZire, beating the compact sedan by a mere two points to claim top honours!
Second runner-up behind the DZire is its own sibling, the fourth generation Maruti Suzuki Swift, a hatchback that’s one of the only cars in the history of the ICOTY to have won the coveted award three times previously, with each generation change. More importantly, the Thar ROXX has won the ICOTY beating a long list of impressive cars, though as the tradition has been over the past few years, the long list of cars launched in 2024 was pared down by the eminent jury to shortlist 8 cars. The list of final contenders for ICOTY 2025 thus included the BYD eMax 7, Citroen Basalt, MG Windsor, Tata Curvv/Curvv EV and Tata Punch EV besides the Thar ROXX, Swift and DZire.
The winner was announced at a gala dinner held in New Delhi in the presence of the who’s who of the Indian automotive industry, including the top bosses from every Indian automotive brand, which is also a nod to the ICOTY’s importance as India’s most prestigious automotive award. The Thar ROXX was announced winner by Dr Raghupati Singhania, MD, JK Tyre and Industries along with a representative from Deloitte, responsible for validating the scoring process and also knowledge partner for ICOTY, besides all the ICOTY jury members. What’s also interesting is the fact that in its 20th year this year, the ICOTY had the largest jury ever, including as many as 21 of India’s leading automotive journalists! Besides being highly experienced themselves (we’re talking a collective experience of 408 years of evaluating automobiles!), these are journalists representing India’s leading automotive publications.
This year’s jury, besides Abhay Verma, Editor and Publisher, TURBOCHARGED, included Dhruv Behl, ICOTY 2025 Chairman and also Editor-in-Chief and Founder, AutoX, Ishan Raghava, Managing Editor, AutoX, Yogendra Pratap, Editor Auto Today, Dipayan Dutta, Assistant Editor, Auto Today, Aspi Bhathena, Editor, Car India, Joshua Varghese, Principal Correspondent, Car India, Sirish Chandran, Editorial Director, evo India, Aatish Mishra, Assistant Editor, evo India, Pablo Chaterji, Editor, Motoring World, Kartik Ware, Managing Editor, Motoring World, Kranti Sambhav, Editor, OVERDRIVE, Rohit Paradkar, Assistant Editor, OVERDRIVE, Vikrant Singh, Editorial Director, CarWale and CarTrade, Sagar Bhanushali, Deputy Editor, CarWale, Ameya Dandekar, Editor in Chief, CarDekho and Zigwheels, Arpit Mahendra, Editor, Times of India Auto, Kushan Mitra, Contributing Editor – Automotive, The Print, Cyrus Dhabhar, Editor-in-Chief, PowerDrift, Ashish Masih, Editor, Times Drive and independent journalist Bob Rupani.
The jury round for the ICOTY was held at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida last month, where the jury evaluated the shortlisted contenders on the basis of various parameters, including but not limited to pricing, relevance to the segment, innovation, design, quality, features, comfort, safety, performance, practicality and more, before casting their votes.
