India’s automotive Oscars – the Bloomberg TV-Autocar India awards – were held on December 20, on the verdant lawns of the Taj Lands End hotel in Mumbai.

The big winner of the evening was the Ford EcoSport which bagged the automobile industry’s most coveted award – the Bloomberg TV-Autocar Car of the Year 2014 trophy. Apart from the title trophy, the compact SUV also drove away with five other awards including SUV of the Year, Best Value for Money, Viewer’s Choice Award (voted for by viewers of the ‘Autocar Show’ on Bloomberg TV), the Engine of the Year for the 1.0 EcoBoost engine and finally, the Technology & Innovation award for its Sync with Emergency Assist system.



The Bloomberg TV-Autocar Bike of the Year 2014 award was bagged by the KTM 390 Duke which blends potent performance, decent fuel efficiency and a reasonable price-tag in a winning package.

Speaking at the awards nite, Union petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily said that diesel prices are likely to be fully deregulated by May-June 2014. He revealed that in light of increasing refining capacity in the country and new finds in the Barmer basin in Rajasthan, India could be looking to fast reducing its oil imports by 2020 and even looking at the potential of self-sufficiency in the sector (see interview on page 17).

The awards were decided by a distinguished jury comprising Hormazd Sorabjee – editor, Autocar India, Shapur Kotwal – deputy editor, Autocar India, Manvendra Singh – India’s leading automobile historian, Renuka Kirpalani – editor, Autocar Show, Narain Karthikeyan – India’s first F1 driver, Rishad Cooper – two-wheeler editor, Autocar India, Kartikeya Singhee – consulting associate editor, Autocar Show, and C S Santosh – motocross racer.



The Autocar Car of the Year Awards continue a tradition of recognising excellence that dates back to 2002. They are the culmination of weeks of behind-the-scenes work. The eight-member jury scrutinised reams of facts, figures and data generated by Autocar India’s satellite-based road testing equipment. The 15 cars and three bikes were then put through a rigorous series of tests to evaluate various parameters. And then auditors from KPMG, who ensured a watertight methodology both in terms of eligibility and judging criteria, tabulated the score sheets to declare the final list of winners. Here's looking at the movers and shakers.

The event, like always, was a celebration of the Indian automobile industry, whose fortunes are down right now, but not for long.