Electric vehicles dominated the 2023 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards, winning two of the three, the jury of journalists that presents the awards announced Wednesday.

The electric Ford F-150 Lightning and Kia EV6 were named truck and utility vehicle of the year, respectively. Car of the year Acura Integra was the sole winner powered by a traditional internal combustion engine.

The Lightning, EV6 and Integra were also named Free Press car, truck and utility of the year last week. I chose them as Free Press auto critic, and they also received my votes for the North American car, truck and utility awards — NACTOY, for short.

The other finalists for the awards were:

Truck: Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and Lordstown Endurance

Car: Genesis G80 EV and Nissan Z

Utility: Cadillac Lyriq and Genesis GV60

A big win for Lightning

The F-150 Lightning won by a wide margin, racking up 483 of 500 possible points. Each juror has 10 points to distribute as they see fit among the three finalists for each award.

“So many talented people poured their heart and soul into making this truck a reality,” chief engineer Linda Zhang said.

“You’re going to see many more Lightnings," Ford Vice President of Electric Vehicles Darren Palmer said. “We’re increasing production to 150,000 this year.”

The EV6, a futuristic and sporty EV, netted 258 points.

“The EV6 launched Kia’s U.S. electric vehicle strategy,” Kia North America COO Steve Center said. “Kia electric vehicle sales increased 150% in 2022. Demand outpaced supply for most of the year.”

The Integra, an affordable and sporty compact sedan that recalls the values that made Acura a hit as the first Japanese luxury brand, won with 174 points.

“The Integra is critical to Acura. It’s bringing old customers back and attracting new ones,” said Emile Korkor, Acura vice president of sales.

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The awards were presented at M1 Concourse, a car club with luxury garages and a track north of Detroit in Pontiac.

Jurors evaluated 47 new vehicles for the three awards, NACTOY president Gary Witzenburg said. That matched the figure for the largest field ever. We evaluate vehicles throughout the year, narrowing the field to the nine finalists in two earlier rounds of voting.

Jurors consider value, performance, innovation, design and other factors to select the winners.

EVs sweep SUV category

“This was the first year one category was all EVs,” juror and freelance journalist Karl Brauer said. “And SUVs are the biggest, more important category.

“These are mainstream vehicles, not flukes. You can drive any one of them every day.”

The Lightning persuaded many EV skeptics to consider the technology when Ford fitted it to America’s perennially best-selling vehicle.

“The Lightning is the best truck I’ve ever driven,” juror and Autoblog editor-in-chief Greg Migliori said.

The Integra won a slugfest with the latest version of Nissan’s Z sports car and the first electric sedan from the up-and-coming Genesis luxury brand.

“The Integra is the most seamlessly engineered passenger car I’ve driven in a long time,” said Lindsay Brooke, editor-in-chief of SAE International’s Automotive Engineering and Autonomous Vehicle Engineering magazines.

Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: EVs dominate North American car, truck, utility of the year awards