Audi e-tron Named to Ward’s ’10 Best Interiors’ List

Southfield, MI — WardsAuto has unveiled the annual Wards 10 Best Interiors list for 2020, spotlighting vehicles with stylish and comfortable interiors across a wide range of price points.

Now in its tenth year, the Wards 10 Best Interiors list recognizes outstanding achievement in aesthetics, comfort, ergonomics, materials usage, fit-and-finish and user-friendliness of displays and controls. Wards editors selected the best interiors from a list of 32 nominated vehicles with all-new or significantly redesigned cabins available in the U.S. There is no price cap for 10 Best Interiors, but value is a factor.

Due to COVID-19, it was awfully hard to pick this year’s Wards 10 Best Interiors winners when members of the editorial team were unable to climb in and out of cars, fiddle with the knobs, try out the seats, touch the materials and get close enough to make educated assessments about fit & finish.

With the testing process going virtual, each vehicle delivered was evaluated in person by one editor. Using our Microsoft Teams communication portal, that editor used their phone to shoot live video inside the vehicle while discussing features relevant to our judging criteria.

“In past years, the cars went to our office and we all got seat time and we did our scoring and could talk about this feature or that,” says Wards Senior Content Director Drew Winter. “This year, in quarantine, we didn’t pass cars around for fear of spreading the virus. But we managed to do the judging just the same, with the help of video cameras on our phones.”

Meanwhile, the seven other editorial judges were watching on their laptops from home, able to hear the commentary and ask questions along the way and sample the interior’s features remotely via the hands of the moderator.

SUVs and CUVs make up seven of the 10 honorees – the first time so many utility vehicles have dominated – leaving only two sedans and a coupe to fill out this year’s list.  

The 2020 winners in alphabetical order (price listed as tested):

• Audi e-tron ($85,790)
• Bentley Flying Spur ($283,275)                        
• BMW X6 M Competition ($131,745)                
• Chevy Corvette Stingray ($78,820)                 
• Hyundai Venue ($23,305)  
• Kia Telluride ($47,255)
• Lincoln Aviator ($81,790)
• Mercedes-Benz GLB ($57,470)
• Nissan Sentra ($24,800)
• Toyota Highlander ($51,654)                               

This year’s trendlines are unmistakable. Redesigned vehicles are arriving with more heated second-row seats, more reconfigurable digital displays, more compelling color and fabric combinations, more use of bold ambient lighting colors and more front passenger seats available with memory position settings.

During the 10 years of the competition, Hyundai has won eight trophies, more than any other brand, while its sister brand Kia has won six. This is the fifth year both Hyundai and Kia have earned trophies in the same year. Chevrolet has won seven trophies.

It’s also the fourth year in a row Lincoln has made the cut and the third year in a row for Toyota. Nissan now has five trophies. Among German luxury rivals, BMW and Mercedes-Benz each has five trophies, while Audi has four.

The 2020 Wards 10 Best Interiors will be honored in an all new, one year only, special virtual ceremony during the Informa Tech Automotive Group’s Super Event featuring the WardsAuto Interiors Conference, WardsAuto User Experience Conference, TU-Detroit and ADAS & Autonomous Vehicles August 18-20. For more information about the virtual conference, visit https://wardsauto.informa.com/interiors/.

ABOUT WARDSAUTO

WardsAuto is a world-leading provider of automotive insights and analysis, having served the industry’s information needs for more than 90 years. A Southfield, MI-based Informa business, WardsAuto provides a forward-looking perspective on all aspects of the automotive business, from the tech center to the plant floor to the showroom.  Its services include the premium Subscribers.WardsIntelligence.com resource and suite of customizable data reporting tools, the WardsAuto Interiors and User Experience (UX) Conferences, WardsAuto Engine & Propulsion Summit, digital newsletters and magazines, as well as the Wards Intelligence Outlook and Focus Conferences. As a part of our parent organization, Informa Tech, our mission is to bring together the entire ecosystem of those in technology and automotive to accelerate the future of our industries. Subscribe to WardsAuto and attend its events by visiting http://www.wardsauto.com.

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