The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada has handed out its 2024 Innovation Awards at the Vancouver Auto Show.

The winners are:

• Best Green Innovation: BMW’s fifth-generation electric drive system
• Best Safety Innovation: Volvo EX90 Safety Suite
• Best Technical Innovation: Range Rover Sport SV 6D Dynamics Suspension.

“AJAC is proud to recognize this year’s best new technologies in our Innovation Awards,” said awards chair Graham Heeps in a news release.

“Electrification, automation and safety are at the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to future automotive technology, and the judging panel was impressed by the reduced environmental impact of BMW’s electric drive system and by the way that Volvo’s latest Safety Suite reduces the frequency and severity of crashes even further. But Range Rover’s clever suspension system shows that there are still many other ways to improve the vehicles we drive, whatever the powertrain.”

BMW’s fifth-generation electric drive system eliminates rare earths from the electric motors and enables many components to be repaired or replaced, reducing service costs, AJAC said.

BWM Group Canada further adds the system’s current-excited synchronous motors, which don’t require rare earth metals, comprise a rotating rotor and a fixed stator.

“As the magnetic field of the rotor is generated by means of electrical current that flows through several coils, the use of rare earths, such as those needed for permanent magnets, can be omitted altogether with this operating principle,” BMW Group Canada said in a news release.

This fifth-generation system can be found in the i4, iX, i7 and the new i5, as well as BMW’s plug-in hybrid vehicles.

“Sustainability was an integral part of the development of the new generation of BMW vehicles,” the company said in its news release. “From the sourcing of materials to the vehicles’ production and the recycling of its components in the future, every step of the value chain was carefully studied to reduce the carbon footprint of new electrified models to the absolute lowest level possible.”

The Volvo Safety Suite features a high-resolution LiDAR sensor, which enhances the reliability and and performance – including in low-light conditions – of the Pilot Assist driver-assistance functions.

The Range Rover Dynamics Suspension features an interlinked suspension system that replaces anti-roll bars to improve handling, ride comfort and off-road ability.