The 2026 World Car of the Year will be either the BMW iX3, Hyundai PalisadeorNissan Leaf.
The announcement of these three finalists closes the door on Kia taking the top spot for a third year in a row, though its sister brand Hyundai still has a chance – and Kia could still win one of the other awards included in the international competition.
After announcing the top 10 finalists for World Car of the Year in January, the jury has now released the Top Three in the World finalists.
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That includes not only the above shortlist for the World Car of the Year gong, but also the top three finalists for the other categories of the competition.
General Motors (and its Chinese joint-venture partners), BMW and Hyundai have the most top-three finishers, with three each.
The overall winners will be announced on April 1 at the 2026 New York International Auto Show.
At the same time as the release of the top 10 finalists in January – from which one winner will be selected as the overall World Car of the Year – the panel also released the top five finalists for four other awards.
The Audi A6/S6 e-tron and Hyundai Ioniq 9 have now been knocked out of the running for World Electric Vehicle.
Instead, the winner of this category will be one of the following:
The electric Audis, as well as the combustion-powered A6/S6 range, have also been eliminated from the World LuxuryCar competition. The winner of this award will be one of the following:
- Cadillac Vistiq
- Lucid Gravity
- Volvo ES90
For World Performance Car, the Defender OCTA and Mercedes-AMG GT63 Pro have been knocked out of contention. The remaining finalists for this award are:
The World Urban Car won’t be the Alfa Romeo Junior or the Wuling Binguo/Ari Poly. The top three finalists for this award are:
- Baojun Yep Plus/Chevrolet Spark EUV
- Firefly
- Hyundai Venue
Finally, the top three finalists for World Car Design of the Year are:
A design panel comprising seven global design experts was asked to review each candidate and create a shortlist for the jurors’ final vote on World Car Design of the Year.
All of the finalists are sold here or have been locked in for an Australian launch, apart from the Baojun Yep Plus, Firefly, and Lucid Gravity.
The shortlisted Hyundai Venue is, however, an overhauled version sold in India.
The top three finalists for each award were selected by secret ballot, and the overall winners will also be determined in the same way.
The jury consists of 98 automotive journalists from 33 countries, including CarExpert co-founder and presenter, Paul Maric.
Korean brands have had a great run this decade at the World Car of the Year awards, with Kia winning three times – in 2020 with the Telluride and in 2024 and 2025 with the EV9 and EV3, respectively – and Hyundai winning in 2022 (with the Ioniq 5) and 2023 (with the Ioniq 6).
The only non-Korean car to win World Car of the Year this decade was the Volkswagen ID.4 in 2021, though European, Japanese and Chinese brands have been well-represented in the other annual awards.
