Ford has come out tops among the volume brands in the 2023 Automotive Innovations awards, held by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and The Centre of Automotive Management in Germany.
Ford was named ‘Most Innovative Volume Brand 2023’ and also scooped category wins for ‘Autonomous Driving & ADAS’ and ‘Connected Car Services’ for volume brands.
Volkswagen was named Most Innovative Company, while Mercedes-Benz took top honours among the premium brands.
The judges looked at innovations from 29 global car groups representing more than 80 brands. In total, 1,088 innovations were considered during the judging process for the 2023 awards.
Ford received an overall score of 91.2 points, ahead of second-placed VW (82.0 points) and third-placed Toyota (64.6 points).
The introduction of Ford’s Level 2 hands-free advanced driver assistance system, BlueCruise1 – available in the Mustang Mach-E, with regulatory approval for use on the motorway network in Great Britain since April – helped Ford to win the ‘Autonomous Driving & ADAS’ category on the way to the overall award.
The Ford F-150’s Pro Trailer Hitch Assist was also cited for special mention.
SYNC 4’s2 cloud-based navigation on the Ford Focus was a highlighted innovation that put Ford at the top of the ‘Connected Car Services’ category, while the company also indexed well in the remaining two categories, taking second place in both ‘Electric Drive’ and ‘Interface and Connectivity’.
“Throughout our 120 years history we’ve consistently innovated, producing vehicles and technologies with customers’ needs at the forefront of our minds,” said Silke Seitz, director, Digital Products Europe, who collected the award for Ford.
“The automotive industry today is changing at a rate never before seen, so to be recognised for our innovation at this time is a proud moment and testament to the agility, ability and continuing ambition of the company.”
The Centre of Automotive Management is an independent institute for automotive and mobility research and strategic consulting at the University of Applied Sciences, Bergisch Gladbach, in Germany.
The Automotive Innovations awards recognise automotive engineering innovation with a judging panel led by centre director Prof. Dr.Stefan Bratzel, in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers AG.
“For the first time since 2014, Ford is once again the most innovative volume brand,” said Bratzel. “A high balance of innovative strengths in the most important technology fields was one of the success factors.”