The 2026 World Car of the Year will be either the BMW iX3, Hyundai PalisadeorNissan Leaf.
Announcing these three finalists closes the door on Kia winning the top spot for a third year in ‘his sister brand Hyundai’ has still had – and Kian could still win one of the other awards that are part of this 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 runners.
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BMW iX3
Besides the above shortlist for the World Car of the Year gong, that includes the top three finalists for all other categories of this 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.
Nissan Leaf
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:
In addition to the combustion-powered A6/S6 range, and the electric Audis (along with its own brand of ‘Clutch-based) line-up have also been eliminated from the World LuxuryCar competition. Winner One of the following will be one of these winners, s.
Cadillac
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:
BMW M2 CS
It was asked to review each candidate by a design panel of seven international designers, and write ‘the shortlist for the jurors’ final vote on World Car Design of the Year.
The finalists are sold here or have been locked in for an Australian launch, other than the Baojun Yep Plus, Firefly and Lucid Gravity.
The shortlisted Hyundai Venue is, however, an overhauled version sold in India.
Each award was selected by secret ballot for the top three finalists of each, and will also be determined in the same way as the overall winners.
Mazda 6e
The jury consists of 98 automotive journalists from 33 countries, including childcareman.xyz 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.
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