The run up to the 2023 World Car Awards in April 2023 has commenced with the list of the top finalists from each category now announced. As with 2022, the list of finalists for 2023 too has a made-in-India car, the Citroen C3, which has qualified for the list of finalists in the World Urban Category though there is a caveat – the category only has three entries. This means that the C3 will be in final contention for the award as well.
The Citroen C3 is the only India-made car to make it to the top five finalists in a category.
Carrying on with the Urban Car category, other finalists include the Ora Funky Cat, a quirky looking compact electric car for global markets from Chinese manufacturer GWM and the Volkswagen Taigo, a compact coupe-SUV for European markets based on the MQB A0 platform.
Moving to the World performance Car category, the top five finalists included some prominent names such as the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS, BMW’s limited run M4 CSL and the new Nissan Z coupe. Also in contention is the new Toyota GR Corolla – the hot hatch derivative of the new Corolla on sale in global markets, and all-electric Kia EV6 GT.
The BMW i7 is in contention for the top honours in the EV category as well as the luxury car category alongside the standard 7.
The World Luxury Car category has some strong competition too with the new BMW 7 Series/i7 going up against the Land Rover pair of the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Hyundai Group’s luxury brand Genesis is also in contention with the new G90 with Lucid Motor’s new Air luxury electric sedan rounding out the list.
The BMW i7 and Lucid Air are also in contention for the World Electric Vehicle award – a EV specific award that was introduced for the first time during the 2022 awards. Other finalists include the new Genesis GV60 electric SUV, the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 and the Kia Nero EV.
While all cars in each respective category also qualified for the World Car Design award the final shortlist selected was selected by a panel of six jurors and includes the new Cadillac Luriq electric SUV, the Hyundai Ioniq 6, the new Range Rover Sport, the Lucid Air and the new Nissan Z.
New 992-gen 911 GT3 RS is in contention for the World performance Car award.
While the rest of the categories have been narrowed down the top 5 or top 3, the World Car of The Year Award has a list of ten finalists. The models in contention for the top award are the Alfa Romeo Tonale – the firm's newest compact SUV, the BMW 2 Series Coupe and X1/iX1, Honda’s HR-V SUV, the Kia Nior, Hyundai’s Ioniq 6, the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Mazda CX-60 and the Nissan Ariya and Z sports coupe.
Also revealed were the finalists of the World Car Person of the Year. In contention for the award, introduced in 2018 “to recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to the global automotive industry”, are Wang Chuanfu, President and Chairman of BYD, Stella Clarke, Research Engineer Open innovation, BMW Group, SangYup Lee, Head of Hyundai’s Global Design Centre, Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO, Lucid Motors and Naoyuki Sakamoto, the Gazoo Racing’s chief engineer behind the GR Corolla.
The Person of the year will be announced later this month.
