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For the third consecutive year, a Ford truck has taken the prestigious North American Truck of the Year award for 2023. This year, Ford’s F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup has taken top truck award honors. Last year, the 2022 compact Ford Maverick was named the winner of the truck award, while the 2021 F-150 pickup was the winner. Also, last year, Ford’s Bronco took NACTOY Utility Vehicle honors.
Kia, Acura Take Other Honors
Other winners of the 2023 NACTOY honors included the Kia EV6, named the Utility Vehicle of the Year, while the Acura Integra was named the Car of the Year. Last year’s winners included the Honda Civic.
This year’s NACTOY winners were the result of a three-round voting process by a jury of 50 automotive journalists, according to Automotive News, the leading industry trade paper. The jury was made up of writers from the U.S. and Canada. The winning vehicles were selected from three final contestants in each vehicle category. The finalists were named at November’s Los Angeles auto show.
Ford products have been on a multi-year winning streak. This years NACTOY honors follows the F-150 Lighting’s win as the prestigious MotorTrend Truck of the year winner. The F-150 Lighting electric pickup was launched in April 2022.
Win ‘Shows Sentiment For Electric Trucks’
Darren Palmer, vice president of electric vehicle programs at Ford, in commenting on the award, told the trade paper, “It shows us the sentiment out there for electric trucks. It helps confirm the investments we’re making; because we’re all-in on leading in electric. The teams will be bolstered by this success because we’re already working on our next generation of trucks and cars.”
Acura’s Integra win was the automaker’s first NACTOY victory since 2001. Kia received its first NACTOY win since 2020 and its second overall as a brand. Interestingly, this year marked the first time the three utility finalists were electric vehicles (EV).
The Integra was the only internal-combustion-engined (ICE) vehicle to win this year. Integra returned to the Acura lineup following an absence of 16 years. “It’s a reinforcement that we have a fantastic product,” Emile Korkor, assistant vice president of Acura national sales, told the trade paper. “It’s core to our DNA, having an entry vehicle like this, bringing back that Integra nameplate.”
NACTOY Founded 29 Years Ago
The NACTOY awards were founded in 1994.
Marc Stern has been an automotive writer since 1971 when an otherwise normal news editor said, "You're our new car editor," and dumped about 27 pounds of auto stuff on my desk. I was in heaven as I have been a gearhead from my early days. As a teen, I spent the usual number of misspent hours hanging out at gas stations (a big thing in my youth) and working on cars. From there on, it was a straight line to my first column for the paper "You Auto Know," an enterprise I handled faithfully for 32 years. Not many people know that I also handled computer documentation for a good part of my earnings while writing YAN. My best writing, though, was always in cars. My work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, AutoWeek, SuperStock, Trailer Life, Old Cars Weekly, Special Interest Autos, etc. You can follow me on: Twitter or Facebook.
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