The Accelerator Awards are an annual black-tie dinner hosted by naamsa to celebrate the top-performing vehicles, manufacturers, importers, dealers, businesspeople and media over the preceding 12 months.

“What makes the Accelerator Awards so unique and so coveted is the fact that they are based on hard facts. Naamsa is the custodian of all the industry data, from sales to dealer performance, and we thought it prudent to use this information to award the outright best performers in various sales, service and performance categories,” says Mikel Mabasa, CEO of naamsa.

Mikel explains that naamsa collated all the vehicle sales, dealer sales, individual brand performances, automotive media articles and customer feedback in deciding its award winners. It also cast its net wider than just sales to also acknowledge and encourage, the positive work done by vehicle brands to become more BBBEE compliant and to develop female leaders and youths.

This year’s awards garnered special attention from the automotive industry as they also included the best-performing new energy vehicles. This has become increasingly important as the industry changes from one focused purely on internal combustion engines to one that can compete globally in a world where electric and other new energy vehicles have become the focus.

“In our SAAW23 keynote address, Deputy President Paul Mashatile rightly said that the automotive industry is set to undergo more changes in the next decade than it did in the previous 100 years. This is why naamsa’s role in facilitating industry discussions, lobbying government policy and engaging with global players has become so important,” says Mikel.

The Awards, in no particular order, were made to:

Passenger Car of the Year: VW Polo Vivo.

Biggest Achiever of the Year (compared to previous years) Passenger Segment: Suzuki Baleno.

Light Commercial Vehicle of the Year: Toyota Hilux.

Biggest Achiever of the Year (compared to previous years) Light Commercial (LCV) Segment: Kia Picanto Runner.

Medium Commercial Vehicle of the Year: Isuzu N-Series.

Heavy Commercial Vehicle of the Year: Hino 500 Series.

Extra-Heavy Commercial Vehicle of the Year: Mercedes-Benz Actros.

Bus of the Year: MAN Bus.

New Energy Vehicle of the Year for Plug-in Models: BMW iX3.

New Energy Vehicle of the Year for Traditional Hybrid Models: Toyota Corolla Cross.

Top Locally Manufactured Vehicle of the Year: VW Polo.

Top Exported Vehicle of the Year: VW Polo.

Top Imported Vehicle of the Year: Suzuki Swift.

Dealer of the Year for passenger vehicles: Suzuki Bassonia JHB.

Dealer Achiever of the Year for passenger vehicles (performance year-on-year improvement): Bidvest McCarthy Nissan Woodmead.

Top Imported Vehicle of the Year: Suzuki Swift.

Top Business Journalist of Year: David Furlonger.

Top Auto Journalist: Roger Houghton.

Top Emerging Auto Journalist of the Year: Reba Semakane.

Top Media House of the Year: Dealerfloor.

Long Service Award: Johan van Vreden, Ombudsman of the Motor Industry.

Naamsa Value Creator of the Year: Hendrik Moolman.

Naamsa Lifetime Achievement Award: Brand Pretorius.

Women Empowering OEM of the Year: Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa.

Youth Empowering OEM of the Year: Toyota SA Motors

Women and Youth Empowering Importer of the Year: Hyundai.

Women and Youth Empowering MHCV OEM of the Year: UD Trucks.

Job creator of the Year: BMW SA.

Most improved BBBEE Compliant OEM of the Year: Nissan SA.

Most improved BBBEE Compliant Importer of the Year: Motus Group.

Most improved BBBEE Compliant Commercial Vehicle OEM of the Year: UD Trucks.

Most improved BBEE Compliant Manufacturing OEM: Isuzu SA.