The biennial Delhi Auto Expo puts up the best the Indian automobile industry on show to the world. As always carandbike had the privilege of hosting the official awards to recognise the very best that the 2020 Expo had to offer. The award categories that we consider the most prestigious include the Best of Show. And for the second expo running, that honour belongs to Kia India for the Sonet subcompact SUV concept. It was the Kia SP concept (that went on to become the Kia Seltos), which had won the award in the 2018 edition. The Sonet was recognised by our jury for several reasons. It previews a production model that will no doubt set Kia into a much higher volumes segment for the first time. The Kia Sonet subcompact SUV will take on the likes of the Hyundai Venue (with which it shares a lot), Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza (that has gone petrol-only and received its facelift at the Expo too), Mahindra XUV300, Tata Nexon, and the Ford EcoSport.
Also Read: Kia Sonet Concept Unveiled
Kia Sonet will be a subcompact SUV rivaling the likes of Hyundai Venue and Maruti Vitara Brezza
The Kia Sonet also boasts a sexy design that looks every bit the chunky SUV. The rugged characteristics in its stance couple well with some stylish urban elements in its overall design. Also important to the jury, was Kia's decision to choose the Delhi Expo to once again preview an important model that would occupy an absolutely new spot in its global line-up - just as the SP turned Seltos had. Yes the Kia Sonet concept was a global debut that got plenty of attention from the world over. This coupled with the on-ground buzz and massive attention it is getting from the visitors to the expo makes it an obvious winner.
The Kia Sonet concept is expected to be priced around Rs. 7 lakh
In fact the Kia Sonet beat out some very stiff competition to win the CNB Auto Expo Excellence Awards 2020 - Best of Show trophy. It competed with the Tata Sierra concept, second generation Hyundai Creta, Mercedes-Benz V-Class Marco Polo, the Skoda Vision IN concept, and the Volkswagen Taigun. Each of those cars was in the shortlist of nominees because it also had compelling reasons to befit a win. But the Kia Sonet managed to edge ahead, and was the deserving winner in the eyes of our jury. The latter was made up of Girish Karkera (former Editor of Top Gear magazine, Yogendra Pratap (Editor of Auto Today), Kingshuk Dutta and Ameya Naik from carandbike and this reporter. The awards were handed out across 16 categories, and Kia also managed to bag the Best Launch of the Expo and Facebook People's Choice Award for the Carnival MPV.
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