By Gary S. Vasilash

This morning the 2024 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year (NACTOY) awards were announced.

And with no further ado. . .

• North American Car of the Year: Toyota Prius & Prius Prime
• North American Truck of the Year: Ford Super Duty
• North American Utility Vehicle of the Year: Kia EV9

To look at this a more closely:

The Car category also included the Hyundai IONIQ 6 EV and the Honda Accord. Several people whom I’ve talked with (full disclosure: I am one of the 50 jurors for the awards) thought it would more likely be the Accord than the Prius.

While all three are excellent cars, the transformation of the Prius from something that was somewhat awkward to an object of desire (with really good gas mileage) undoubtedly pushed it over the top.

In trucks, the Ford Super Duty was up against the Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup and the Chevrolet Silverado EV. The NACTOY awards are consumer-centric, not commercial-centric. Which led me to wonder about the Super Duty being a finalist. Then two things happened:

1. I talked with Detroit Free Press car reviewer Mark Phelan (also a juror) who pointed out that plenty of people buy Super Duty trucks as daily drivers
2. I spent time behind the wheel of a Super Duty and discovered that in terms of the tech and the amenities it gave nothing up compared with cars or utilities

That the Silverado EV didn’t take the trophy probably surprised some people at GM HQ because this is their Ultium-based offering in the full-size truck segment and it betters the specs of the Ford F-150 Lightning, the EV pickup that won the NACTOY award in 2023. Perhaps the $74,800 price for a work truck kept Chevy from winning.

And in utilities, the finalists that the Kia EV9 faced were the Genesis Electrified GV70 and the Hyundai Kona/Kona EV. In mid-November when the finalists were announced the Kona wasn’t on the list and the Volvo EX30, a small electric crossover, was. But Volvo had to pull the vehicle from consideration because it wasn’t going to have vehicles in-market before the end of 2023.

Two things about the utility situation:

1. Kia also won the category last year with the EV6
2. As Genesis is a sibling company with Hyundai and Kia, it is clear that the three companies have remarkable capabilities in the utility space—including the electric utility space

And that second point raises another consideration:

The traditional domestics had the Truck category. But nothing in the other two categories.

Is that a model for long-term success?