Toronto, Canada - With the announcement of the finalists in six award categories, the 13th annual World Car of the Year programme shifts up a gear - and becomes a lot more public.
The World Car of the Year is adjudicated by a panel of 75 distinguished international motoring journalists from 24 countries, including South Africa's Hannes Oosthuizen.
World Car Awards 2017 was launched at the Paris motor show on 29 September 2016, followed by five days of test drives in California after the Los Angeles auto show. The next step will be at the Geneva motor show on 7 March when the top three finalists in each categories will be announced, before the winners are revealed at the New York auto show on 13 April.
AND THE FINALISTS (In alphabetical order) ARE…
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 chosen 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
World Car Design of the Year
This award is different; the finalist were chosen by a design panel of six design experts - Japanese freelance design journalist Masatsugu Arimoto, Dassault Systemes vice-president for design Anne Asensio, Gernot Bracht of the Pforzheim Design School in Germany, Strategy Committee chairman Patrick le Quément of the Sustainable Design School in Nice, car design researcher Sam Livingstone of the Royal College of Art in London and Tom Matano of the School of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
These are the five finalists they put forward for the jurors as being of outstanding design merit (feel free to disagree - we did):
Audi A5 / S5 Coupé
Jaguar F-Pace
Mazda CX-9
Mercedes S-Class Cabriolet
Toyota C-HR