The Road to the World Car continues with latest announcement of the finalists in six award classifications.
This release starts the countdown for the 2017 World Car Awards (WCA) prize-giving ceremony that will be hosted by the New York International Auto Show on April 13, 2017. Winners of the 2017 World Car of the Year, World Luxury Car, World Performance Car, World Green Car, World Car Design of the Year and the inaugural World Urban Car will all be announced at this time.
2017 marks the fourth successive year that the World Car Awards have maintained their ranking as the number one automotive awards program globally in terms of media reach.
The Global Trends Report, provided annually by Prime Research and Autoneum, will also be declared during the New York show press conference and media breakfast hosted by Bridgestone Corporation. The report is the conclusion of research and insights during the past six months.
A jury of 75 recognized international automotive journalists picked the following finalists by secret ballot based on their evaluation with every candidate as part of their professional work. For more information about jurors and their outlets, visit wcoty.com and click < Jurors. The international accounting firm KPMG tabulated the jurors’ ballots; then announced the finalists recently. The 2017 World Car of the Year will be picked from these 10 finalists listed in alphabetical order. * Audi A5 / S5 Coupé * Audi Q2 * Audi Q5 * Fiat/Abarth 124 Spyder * Honda Civic * Jaguar F-PACE * Mazda CX-9 * Skoda Kodiaq * Toyota C-HR * Volkswagen Tiguan
The 2017 World Luxury Car will be selected from one of these top five finalists:
* Bentley Bentayga
* BMW 5 Series
* Genesis G90
* Mercedes-Benz E-Class
* Volvo S90 / V90
The 2017 World Performance Car top five finalists are:
* Aston Martin DB11
* Audi R8 Spyder
* Honda / Acura NSX
* McLaren 570s
* Porsche Boxster Cayman
The 2017 World Green Car top five are:
* Chevrolet Bolt
* Honda Clarity Fuel-Cell Car
* Hyundai Ioniq
* Tesla Model X
* Toyota Prius Prime
The 2017 World Urban Car top five are:
* BMW i3 (94 Ah)
* Citroen C3
* Ford KA+
* Smart Cabriolet
* Suzuki Ignis
Cars qualified for the 2017 World Car Design of the Year award are selected from the list of World Car candidates or may be added as a stand-alone entry given the vehicle is available in amount of at least 10 in one major market throughout the period beginning January 1, 2016 and ending May 31, 2017. Candidates could be pre-production or all-new production.
A design panel includes six highly respected world design experts was requested to first review each candidate, and then develop a short-list of recommendations for the jurors. The design experts are in alpha order: Masatsugu Arimoto (Japan – Freelance design journalist), Anne Asensio (Vice-President, Design – Dassault Systemes), Gernot Bracht (Germany – Pforzheim Design School), Patrick le Quément (Designer and President of the Strategy Committee – The Sustainable Design School), Sam Livingstone (U.K. – Car Design Research and Royal College of Art) and Tom Matano (USA – School of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco)
The five finalists chosen for the jurors are:
* Audi A5 / S5 Coupé
* Jaguar F-PACE
* Mazda CX-9
* Mercedes S-Class Cabriolet
* Toyota CH-R
The Road to the World Car started in Paris on September 29, was followed by a five day stop in Los Angeles for test-drives in November, and remains continuous with these finalists’ announcement. The next stop is at the Geneva International Auto Show on Tuesday, March 7 when the top three finalists in all categories will be declared. The journey ends at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday, April 13, 2017 when all winners are announced.
