Volkswagen ID.7 Wins German Car of the Year 2024

The Volkswagen ID.7 has been crowned the 2024 GCOTY, or German Car of the Year. The VW model is the company’s most recent EV launch and is a flagship for the ID range. It had already been voted Premium Car of the Year at GCOTY in round one. The category winners were then assessed once again by the 39 German and international automobile journalists on the GCOTY jury. In this second round, the ID.7 stayed narrowly ahead of the nearest rival to clinch the title. That first up is the much-discussed Kia EV9 – also an electric vehicle. The Hyundai IONIQ 6 is the second runner-up.

In fact, the VW ID.7 is the sixth EV to win the GCOTY title. The Jaguar I-Pace, Porsche Taycan, Honda e, Hyundai IONIQ 5, and VW ID. Buzz are past winners. That also makes this a back-to-back win for Volkswagen. The category winners were announced a few weeks ago. The Compact Car (up to 35,000 Euros base price) was won by the MG4 – another EV crossover. The Premium category recognises cars up to 70,000 Euros – won by the VW ID.7. The Kia EV9 won Luxury (over 70,000 Euros base price), the Hyundai IONIQ 6 triumphed in the ‘New Energy’ class that awards cars with alternate propulsion systems to ICE. And the Porsche 911 T snagged the Performance class. The winners were selected from all significant vehicles introduced in the German market in the past year.

Unsurprisingly the Porsche 911 T got the highest scores in driving, handling, and overall fun quotient. But on most other parameters – be it comfort or safety, or even value for money – the ID.7 stayed on top. The EV9 did score very high for design, practicability, infotainment, and comfort too. But overall, the ID.7 managed a slightly higher aggregate score, and so it won.

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer was presented with the trophy at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg. He said, "We have just launched our ID.7, and it has already been named German Car of the Year by a prestigious expert jury—an incredible success! This win shows that we are on the right path: top quality, intuitive operation, and efficiency that's actually fun. It’s 100 per cent Volkswagen."

GCOTY jurors are drawn from the top publications in Germany, with 29 influential automotive journalists who reach German-speaking markets. The jury also has 10 international guest jurors, and this reporter is proud to be one of them. The German awards programme has two testing events – one in the summer at Alsfeld (after which round one of voting takes place), and one in autumn at the ZF HQ in Friedrichshafen (where the category winners are tested again and voted on thereafter).

The programme derives support from consulting firm Aitastic and also sees the involvement of automotive suppliers like Alcantara, Bridgestone, Gentex, KST Motorenversuch and ZF Friedrichshafen of course.