A technological powerhouse – the Honda City RS e:HEV elevated the game in its segment.
The Vehicle Of The Year Award is reserved for the most exceptional and impactful car launched in Malaysia in the last 12 months. We avoid giving this award to cars that are too upmarket and instead look at cars that are within the reach of most working Malaysians. So, for 2021, which vehicle made the biggest impact on our industry? We think it is the Honda City RS e:HEV.
This new generation of the Honda City is impressive enough as it is. However, there are things about this particular flagship variant that impressed us specifically. This was the first City to be packaged as an ‘RS’ model. This trim level brings multi-material seat upholstery and a sporty aero bodykit with a unique grille design with black accents.
But it’s really under the hood where it impresses the most. Honda’s e:HEV hybrid system is truly unique. It’s essentially an electric vehicle with a range extender petrol engine, however, the engine can also directly power the wheels at higher speeds. Amazing, considering this is a segment where carmakers usually recycle decades-old technology to bring costs down.
About the VOTY Awards 2021
The Vehicle of the Year (VOTY) Awards is sponsored by Allianz Malaysia Berhad and is judged by Daniel Sherman Fernandez, Ross Hadi, Amirul Mukminin and Subhash Nair from Drive Safe and Fast (dsf.my) and GohedGostan.com.
The selection process is simple and clean. All cars launched in Malaysia within 13 months of our cutoff date are eligible for entry. We contact all car brands officially operating in Malaysia and ask them for test cars for each of our judges. There’s no participation fee, no tables to buy, no package deals — nothing. Any judge who drives an eligible car gets to vote for it. A simple majority is all it takes for a vehicle to win in a given category.
The categories are kept as consistent as possible from year to year with some modifications when a certain category is not adequately represented or is over-represented in that particular year. You can view the categories over the years by looking through our “VOTY” tab on the dsf.my page.
Our title sponsor Allianz recognizes the integrity of our team and all players involved in deciding on winners and leaves all decisions to us regarding the winners. We hope our readers appreciate the efforts of all parties involved and provide us with feedback on how we can further improve on this.
