CNBC-TV18 announces winners of the prestigious Overdrive Awards

With the overarching theme – ‘electric’, the 18th edition of the prestigious awards felicitated automotive excellence in the country

Mumbai : The 18thedition of CNBC-TV18 Overdrive Awards came to a grand conclusion yesterday at the Taj Diplomatic Enclave in New Delhi. The awards brought together India’s dynamic automobile industry under one roof, as some of the leading brands in the country were recognised and honoured for their achievements across multiple award categories. Leaders from various spheres in the country graced the awards ceremony and witnessed automotive giants being honoured for their excellence. Nitin Gadkari, Honourable Minister for Road Transport & Railways; Dharmendra Pradhan, Honourable Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas; Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog were some of the esteemed guests who were in attendance.

Commenting on the awards, Joy Chakraborthy, President – Revenue, TV18 & CEO Forbes India said, “Winner of all major industry awards for being the ‘Best Business News Channel’ since inception, CNBC-TV18 has cemented its leadership position in the Indian media. Over the years CNBC-TV18 has created a wide portfolio of programming and set the norm for programming strategy in business news space. This gives us the opportunity and confidence to celebrate leaders and out performers from different sectors of corporate India, one of the most important being Automobiles. The prestigious Overdrive Awards is one of the longest running and most watched in the news genre and has evolved as the go-to destination for head honchos of auto companies, and the automobile fraternity at large.”

The theme of the awards this year was ‘electric’. In line with the theme, an insightful panel discussion led by Shereen Bhan reflected on the future of Indian automobiles going electric. The panelists included top leaders from the automobile industry such as Mayank Pareek, President, TATA’ Mr. Mahesh Babu, CEO,Mahindra Electric; R S Kalsi, Executive Director, Maruti (Marketing and Sales); Mr. Arun Malhotra, MD Nissan and MR Shekhar Vishwanathan, Vice Chairman, Toyota.

Shortlisted by a coveted jury, leading two-wheeler giants like Harley Davidson India, Bajaj Auto, Triumph India, Ducati India, Honda Motorcycles & Scooters, Honda Two Wheelers India, KTM Indiaand more competed in categories like Design of the Year (Two-wheeler), Performance Bike of the Year, Import Motorcycle of the Year, Manufacturer of the Year (Two-wheeler) and more. On the other hand, leading four-wheeler brands like Maruti Suzuki India, Skoda India, Jaguar-Land Rover India, Audi India, Renault, Ford India, Hyundai Motor India and more competed in categories like Design of the Year (Four-Wheeler), Import SUV of the Year, Import Car of the Year, Viewers Choice Car of the Year, Compact Car of the Year and more.

Commenting on the awards, Shubhabrata Marmar, Editor – OVERDRIVE said, “The CNBC-TV18 OVERDRIVE Awards are the most prestigious awards in the industry and in their 18th year, the excellence of the cars and motorcycles of 2017 posed serious challenges. Strong contenders competed directly against each other in the market as well as for the awards. The accuracy of the evaluation process and the experience of the OVERDRIVE jurors proved vital to picking the right winner.

In the motorcycles, Make in India showed its effect with a large crop of premium motorcycles in contention despite commuters dominating volumes. It made testing more fun naturally, but it also meant that the winner was hiding in a group of extremely accomplished machines. But it goes to show that OVERDRIVE had its sights on target from the get go. We took the stand that Indian-made and assembled vehicles should get priority over direct imports nearly two decades ago.

The awards jury is a group of profoundly experienced drivers and riders, including the crack OVERDRIVE test team. The jury round was a intense time of close scrutiny of every aspect of each contender to ensure that the right vehicle won in each of the categories. Our expertise is bolstered by our extremely popular Viewer’s Choice awards where our audience, India’s largest, picked their winners.”

Winners of the CNBC-TV18 Overdrive Awards: