BMW has five entries out of 33 while Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis have eight entries.
The winner of each category will be announced on April 5th at the New York Auto Show.
Jurors for this competition hail from 32 countries.
The first months of every year are always busy with different panels of automotive journalists unveiling their top picks of the year on every continent.
After the North American Car of the Year and the Canadian Car of the Year, it is now time to unveil the finalists for the World Car of the Year title.
100 jurors from 32 countries have voted on their favourite new vehicles in a number of categories as well as their overall pick, which created a list of 33 finalists.
These finalists will then be slimmed down to 3 per category next month and the winner of each category as well as the overall World Car of the Year will be announced during the New York Auto Show on April 5th.
Looking at the list of finalists, something that stands out is the strong showing of the Hyundai Motor Group, with eight vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis on the list.
BMW also did well, with five chances of winning a category, two of which are listed in the overall Car of the Year Category.
2023 Genesis GV60 Performance | Photo: Olivier Delorme
Another trend that is evident in the ratings is the growing popularity of electric vehicles, which have their own category and take up a total of 16 out of 33 spots on the list.
The committee will also announce the World Car Person of the year to acknowledge someone who had a significant impact on the automotive industry this year. The finalists in this category are Wang Chuanfu, CEO of BYD, Dr. Stella Clarke, an engineer at BMW, SangYup Lee, Head of Design for Hyundai and Genesis, Peter Rawlinson, CEO of Lucid Motors, and Naoyuki Sakamoto, Chief engineer for Toyota’s GR division.
2023 Nissan Z | Photo: Olivier Delorme
The finalists for the outright World Car of the Year are:
- Alfa Romeo Tonale
- BMW Series 2 coupe
- BMW X1 and iX1
- Honda HR-V
- Hyundai IONIQ 6
- Kia Niro
- Mazda CX-60
- Mercedes-Benz C-Class
- Nissan Ariya
- Nissan Z
Finalists for the World Electric Car of the Year category include:
- BMW i7
- Genesis GV60
- Hyundai IONIQ 6
- Kia Niro EV
- Lucid Air
The finalists for the World Luxury Car of the Year include:
- BMW 7 Series and i7
- Genesis G90
- Range Rover
- Range Rover Sport
- Lucid Air
The World Performance Car of the Year will be picked between:
- BMW M4 CSL
- Kia EV6 GT
- Nissan Z
- Porsche 911 GT3 RS
- Toyota GR Corolla
The World Urban Car of the Year category will be won by one of these finalists:
- Citroën C3
- Ora Funky Cat
- Volkswagen Taigo
Interestingly, none of these three small cars are offered on the North American market.
Finally, the World Design Car of the Year category is different from the others because instead of automotive journalists, the judges are selected from a panel of design experts. Here are its finalists:
- Cadillac Lyriq
- Hyundai IONIQ 6
- Range Rover
- Lucid Air
- Nissan Z
Source: Forbes
