Maruti’s CV Raman Is Finalist For 2024 World Car Person Of The Year

The prestigious World Car Awards have announced the five finalists for 2024 World Car Person of the Year. Maruti Suzuki’s CTO, CV Raman has made the cut this year. The other finalists for 2024 World car Person of the Year are also huge achievers in their own fields. Lisa Reeves from Volvo Cars, Andreas Preuninger from Porsche, Red Bull Racing’s Adrian Newey, and Stephan Durach from the BMW Group. Raman san as he is affectionately known amongst the automobile industry and media fraternity has been at Maruti Suzuki for over four decades. CV Raman joined Maruti at a time when the company simply produced Suzuki vehicles developed and designed in Japan. But ever since the arrival of the first Swift nearly twenty years ago, he has been at the heart of a move at the company to become an independent R&D hub for Suzuki.

Today Suzuki’s India operations include not just robust manufacturing, but also strong R&D, safety testing, and design capabilities. Raman’s efforts over the past few years have seen many key projects come to light – be it the XL6 or Baleno, or the Grand Vitara hybrid SUV and Brezza.

But World Car has recognised his most recent exploits which oversaw the Jimny model line move to a 5-door format, and also the engineering and design of the Fronx subcompact crossover. Both have been made in India for global markets.

As head of interior design at Volvo Cars, Lisa Reeves is credited with several breakthroughs. From crafting gorgeous cabins for cars like the XC40, she has also worked with new materials – both the sustainable or recycled kind, and pushed the boundaries of traditional car design. Last year she and her team gave us the revolutionary EX30 cabin – undoubtedly one of the year's most imaginative interior designs.

Human-centricity and sustainability are at the core of Volvo’s ethos as a carmaker and Reeves’ work reflects this in many ways – obvious and hidden. The Volvo EX30 EV is packed with clever storage ideas, new look panels and consoles, and has the distinction of having the lowest carbon footprint of any Volvo model yet.

Andreas Preuninger has earned the moniker of Mr GT over the years – as he is the force behind the GT range of cars at Porsche AG, since 2000. Preuninger has been lauded for several cars over these 24 years. Last year he brought two very different and special cars to market – the 718 Spyder RS and the 911 S/T, both of which are all about great performance driving pleasure. The 718 Spyder is a road-going version of the more extreme 718 Cayman GT4 RS. It is fast, lighter, and very thrilling! The 911 S/T is also the lightest 911 of the current generation of this model line. It is also prestigious for being the flag-bearer model for the Porsche 911’s 60-year anniversary. For many it has been dubbed the best road car ever built.

Adrian Newey OBE needs no introduction – especially amongst Formula One fans! He has enjoyed a prolific career at the team, and indeed in the sport. While his exploits first put Red Bull on the map several years ago, we also saw a massive resurgence with the more recent cars to come from the team. Last year though, the RB19 car won 21 of the 22 races in the 2023 F1 season, giving the team and Max Verstappen yet another championship.

And finally let’s also tell you about Stephan Durach from BMW. While his designation as Senior Vice President Connected Company Development may seem long or unexciting, his work has been anything but. BMW has made breakthroughs in in-car systems, the OS that runs them, and has been not only a trailblazer but has set high benchmarks along the way. Durach is responsible for much of this, including the BMW Operating Systems 8.5 and 9. He also worked on the ‘AirConsole gaming platform’ in the new generation BMW 5 series.

And then there’s the thing everyone expects to be the gamechanger for in-car tech and user experience. BMW Panoramic Vision head-up display is remarkable and was first presented as a part of the BMWi Vision Dee. But it went up a notch by integrating augmented reality further on the Neue Klasse concept car. Stretching across the bottom of the entire front windshield, this display is seen by all occupants, not just the driver. Panoramic Vision could well define how we see head up display and instrument cluster functions move to the AR and AI enabled intuitive experiences coming across all cars soon. World Car’s jurors worldwide are allowed to nominate individuals for the Person of the Year honour, and then the steering committee selects the most outstanding candidates from those with most nominations. The over 100-member jury then votes for the winner from the shortlisted five finalists. The award was instituted in 2018 and has seen other Indian automobile professionals like Shailesh Chandra (Tata Motors), and Pratap Bose (then Tata, now Mahindra) also being amongst the finalists. Winners have included the likes of Akio Toyoda (Toyota Motor Corp), Carlos Tavares (Stellantis); and last year it was Hyundai design chief SangYup Lee who won. This year’s winner will be announced next week.