Winners of the 2021 Car Design Award, the Oscar of world car design established in 1984 by Auto&Design magazine, are the design teams from Canoo for the EV pickup, Land Rover for the Defender 90 and Peugeot for its brand design language.

The award ceremony was held digitally at the Mauto – Turin’s National Automobile Museum – and was broadcast on the Car Design Award YouTube channel, offering audiences around the world the opportunity to watch the event. The winners’ trophies were made by Brembo, a partner of the initiative since the award was revived in the 2000s.

Massimo Frascella, Land Rover Design Director

Here are the winners of the 2021 edition, chosen from a shortlist of ten finalists:

  • in the Concept Cars section, the Canoo design team for its EV Pick-up project; in second place the Renault design team for the Renault 5 Prototype; in third place the Genesis team for its X Concept.
  • for Production Cars, the best design award went to Land Rover design for its Defender 90; second and third places went to the designers of the Cupra Formentor and Audi e-tron GT respectively.
  • for the Brand Design Language section, i.e. the design language of the whole brand, the award went to the Peugeot team; with the Ferrari and Genesis design teams in second and third places respectively.

Richard Kim, Canoo Chief Design Officer

The winners were chosen by a jury of experts, all journalists from leading international automotive publications, for an objective assessment of the global car design scene: Silvia Baruffaldi (Auto&Design, Italy), Luca Ciferri (Automotive News Europe, EU), Juan Carlos Payo Calderon (Autopista, Spain), Wes Raynal (Autoweek, USA), Dhruv Behl (AutoX, India), Tetsuya Kato (Car Graphic, Japan), Stéphane Meunier (L’Automobile Magazine, France), Jun Miao (MJ CarShow, China), Paulo Campo Grande (Quatro Rodas, Brazil), Michael Köckritz (Ramp, Germany), Kibeom Kim (Roadtest, Korea), Charlie Turner (Former Top Gear Editor in Chief, UK).

Matthias Hossann, Peugeot Design Director

WINNERS OF THE MOST RECENT CAR DESIGN AWARDS

Year Concept Cars Production Cars Brand Design Language
2016 Mazda RX-Vision Aston Martin DB11 Volvo Cars
2017 Jaguar I-Pace Ford GT Land Rover
2018 Honda Urban EV Jaguar E-Pace Volvo Cars
2019 Alfa Romeo Tonale Peugeot 208 Citroën
2020 Hyundai Prophecy Ferrari Roma Porsche

Click here for the regulations, history of the Car Design Award, information about the award and photos.