Jurors of the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards have announced the finalists for the 2021 title, and there’s only one EV on the list. Dueling with the Genesis GV80 and Land Rover Defender for the Utility Vehicle of the Year title will be Ford’s hotly anticipated Mustang Mach-E.
The 50 jurors will get together again at the beginning of the year to determine the winner, which will be officially announced on January 11. We’ll also get to find out the Car of the Year winner, with the Genesis G80, Hyundai Elantra, and Nissan Sentra fighting for the crown. In the Truck of the Year category, the Ford F-150 will do battle with the Jeep Gladiator Mojave and the Ram TRX.
Of the three categories, Utility was the most disputed as the remaining three models had to fight some stiff competition coming from the following semifinalists: Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe / Suburban, Chevrolet Trailblazer, Ford Bronco Sport, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Seltos, Kia Sorento, Mazda CX-30, Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4 Prime, Toyota Venza, and the Volvo XC40 P8 Recharge.
Last year’s winner of the NACTOY award for the best Utility Vehicle was the Kia Telluride, which managed to obtain more votes from the jurors in the final round than the Hyundai Palisade and Lincoln Aviator. The winners for 2021 will be announced during a new format of the annual event, with details to be disclosed in the coming weeks.
As a refresher, Ford recently updated the Mustang Mach-E lineup with the launch of a GT Performance Edition as the performance pinnacle. Sacrificing some of the range for better electric muscle, the new range topper has 480 horsepower (358 kilowatts) and 634 pound-feet (860 Newton-meters) on tap. While it has the same horsepower as the regular GT variant, torque is up by 34 lb-ft (46 Nm).
The newly added Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition only goes 235 miles (378 kilometers) between charges according to Ford’s estimation, which is 15 miles (24 kilometers) less than the standard GT. For the best range available, there’s one version of the electric SUV that can hit the 300-mile mark (483 kilometers).
Source: North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year
