The finalists for this year’s World Car Awards have been announced, with the eventual winners for each of the six categories set to be revealed at the upcoming New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) in April.
A jury of 98 distinguished international automotive journalists from 33 countries selected the top three finalists for each category, with the most coveted prize being the World Car of the Year award. This year, the battle involves the first in BMW’s Neue Klasse of cars, the iX3, which will look to fend off the second-generation Hyundai Palisade as well as the now-a-crossover Nissan Leaf.
Both the iX3 and Leaf are also in the running to win the World Electric Vehicle of the Year award, with the third finalist in this category being the third-generation Mercedes-Benz CLA, itself a winner of the European Car of the Year 2026.
In the World Luxury Car category, the Cadillac Vistiq, Lucid Gravity and Volvo ES90 will compete for the affection of the judges, while the World Performance Car category will see another BMW models, the M2 CS, take on the hybridised Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray and facelifted Hyundai Ioniq 6 N.
Two cars from Chinese brands were shortlisted for the World Urban Car of the Year award, including the Baojun Yep Plus from the SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) joint venture that is also exported to Brazil as the Chevrolet Spark EUV.
The Baojun electric vehicle is joined by the Firefly, which is the first model from Nio’s new Firefly brand, as well as a South Korean model in the form of the second-generation Hyundai Venue. Lastly, the World Car Design of the Year category will see the Kia’s PV5, an electric van, take on the Volvo ES90 and another product with Chinese roots, the Mazda 6e/EZ-6.
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Aduh another omputeh award that will only heavily favor omputeh-made cars even though they are highly subpar.
Really meaningless award.
hyundai and nissan are omputih? i bet you think Xi Jinping and LimGuanEng are also omputih.