Celebrating its 45th year, the Japan Car of the Year (JCOTY) organisation gathered at Bosch’s new Japan headquarters in Yokohama City to choose the market’s best models of 2024-2025. Some 59 jurors, representatives from 41 of the country’s most influential automotive and lifestyle publications and dozens of car industry executives gathered to witness the vote-counting and prize-giving ceremony for this year’s awards.
Pre-ceremony hype centred on an expected battle between the popular Honda Freed and the Mazda CX-80, and when the final votes were counted, the Freed came out on top with 220 votes to the CX-80’s 196 votes.
“When designing the Freed, we went back to basics and created a new standard for the family minivan that offers class-leading comfort, usability and packaging with the option of Honda’s unique hybrid system and a very reasonable price tag,” said the Freed’s chief engineer Satoru Azumi after receiving the trophy for Honda.
In third place with 172 votes, BMW picked up its second straight Import Car of the Year trophy with the MINI Cooper, while the latest generation of the Mitsubishi Triton surprised many to win the Design Award with 11 votes, just one vote ahead of the fully electric BYD Seal.
Honda also received a second award for technology with its CR-V e:FCEV which uses hydrogen. The Japan COTY steering committee’s Special Award went to Mazda’s e-SKYACTIV R-EV for its rotary technology.
The 10 Best cars for 2024-2025 (chosen earlier as finalists) finished in the following order: Honda Freed (220 votes), Mazda CX-80 (196), MINI Cooper (172), Suzuki Fronx (110), Lexus LBX (70), Hyundai IONIQ 5 N (52), Toyota Land Cruiser (44), BYD Seal (32), Volvo EX30 (30), and Mitsubishi Triton (18).
