On November 9th, 2022, German media AUTO BILD and BILD am SONNTAG announced the winners of the 2022 Golden Steering Wheel Awards. Among them, the NIO ET7 won the championship in the mid-to-large size car group and received the Golden Steering Wheel Award, making it the first Chinese brand to win this award.
How prestigious is the Golden Steering Wheel Award?
BILD am SONNTAG and AUTO BILD have been awarding the golden steering wheel to the best new cars on the market every year since 1976, under the direction of publishing tycoon Axel Springer.
Starting in 1982, the Honorary Golden Steering Wheel was established to recognize extraordinary achievements in the automotive industry. In 1983, Axel Springer presented the first honorary steering wheel to Henry Ford II, the grandson of the founder of Ford Motor Company and then-president of the company.
At the 2019 Golden Steering Wheel Awards, Diess presented an award to Musk as a guest presenter, creating a hilarious atmosphere. As the birthplace of the automobile, the impact brought by the Model 3 has become even more intense in the following years. Even Tesla’s super factory in Berlin has started production.
How does the competition work?
First of all, the basic requirement for competing vehicles is that they must be models released for sale that year. Next, the editors select the first round of models from the newly released vehicles for readers to vote on.
Readers need to vote for the top three models with the highest number of votes in each sub-segment, and then comes the final round.
The expert evaluation team participating in the final round of testing is composed of editors, car designers, car enthusiasts, technical personnel, digital experts, racing drivers, and so on. They ultimately determine the results.
This year, a total of 47 cars were nominated for the award across 11 categories. In the mid-to-large-sized sedan category, ET7 competed against Mercedes’ EQE and won. NIO’s battery swapping station also made it to the “Innovation” category.
Conclusion
Following Tesla Model 3’s victory in the “Golden Steering Wheel” award, NIO’s ET7 has also won the award. The major competitor for NIO is Mercedes’ flagship EQE in the electrification transformation.
This is an interesting matter that can be discussed from two perspectives.
For the overly competitive domestic market and brands that are actively expanding overseas, NIO’s winning of the award instills confidence that European consumers do not reject excellent products from China. In other words, “if it is popular in China, it will definitely sell overseas too!”
For Germany, and for Europe as a whole, this marks the counterattack of a group of “Chinese brands” led by NIO, and this trend will likely continue to expand.
All we can say is “let the good times roll”!
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.