The journey to the 2017 World Car Awards continues with the announcement of the finalists for the six category awards that will be presented at the 2017 New York International Auto Show in mid-April.
Now in their 13th year, the World Car Awards annually honour the top cars on the planet, and have been recognized the past four years for surpassing all other awards in terms of media reach. In addition to an overall World Car of the Year, awards are also handed out to World Luxury Car, World Performance Car, World Green Car, World Car Design of the Year and, for the first time, World Urban Car.
The ten finalists vying for World Car of the Year are the Audi A5/S5 Coupe, Audi Q2, Audi Q5, Fiat/Abarth 124 Spider, Honda Civic, Jaguar F-PACE, Mazda CX-9, Skoda Kodiaq, Toyota C-HR and Volkswagen Tiguan.
The 2017 World Luxury Car will be awarded to one of the Bentley Bentayga, BMW 5 Series, Genesis G90, Mercedes-Benz E-Class or Volvo S90/V90.
Five cars are up for 2017 World Performance Car; they are the Aston Martin DB11, Audi R8 Spyder, Honda/Acura NSX, McLaren 570s and Porsche Boxster Cayman.
One of the following will receive the 2017 World Green Car award: Chevrolet Bolt, Honda Clarity Fuel-Cell Car, Hyundai Ioniq, Tesla Model X or Toyota Prius Prime.
And the inaugural 2017 World Urban Car will be awarded to one of the BMW i3 (94 Ah), Citroen C3, Ford KA Plus, Smart Cabriolet or Suzuki Ignis.
The finalists were selected by secret ballot by a jury of 75 automotive journalists working in all facets of media in countries the world, based on their personal evaluations of the vehicles (as part of their professional work). The ballots were tabulated by the international accounting firm KPMG.
The finalists for the 2017 World Car Design of the Year award is basically every one in production or pre-production. Eligible vehicles are taken from the list of World Car candidates or may be included as a stand-alone entry if at least 10 are available in one major market from January 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017. As such, the cars were pared down by a panel of six highly respected world design experts.
The final five that will be voted on by the journalists are the Audi A5/S5 Coupe, Jaguar F-PACE, Mazda CX-9, Mercedes S-Class Cabriolet and the Toyota C-HR.
The Road to the World Car will have its next stop at the Geneva International Motor Show at the beginning of March, where the lists of finalists will be whittled down to the three that will take the stage in New York for the winners’ announcements.