The countdown ends on Wednesday, 1st April when the winners will be announced during the World Car Awards ceremony, live at the 2026 New York International Auto Show.

A jury of 98 automotive journalists from 33 countries selected the finalists by secret ballot based on their evaluation of each eligible vehicle as part of their professional work.

The 2026 World Car of the Year (WCOTY) winner will be selected from the following top ten finalists chosen from an initial list of 58 contenders:

Audi Q5 / SQ5, BMW iX3, BYD Seal 6 DM-I, Hyundai Ioniq 9, Hyundai Palisade, Kia EV4, Kia EV5, Mercedes-Benz CLA, Nissan Leaf and the Toyota RAV4.

• The top five 2026 World Electric Vehicle finalists are:

Audi A6 e-tron / S6 e-tron, BMW iX3, Hyundai Ioniq 9, Mercedes-Benz CLA and the Nissan Leaf.

• The top five 2026 World Luxury Car finalists are:

Audi A6 e-tron / S6 e-tron, Audi A6/S6, Cadillac Vistiq, Lucid Gravity and the Volvo ES90.

• The top five 2026 World Performance Car finalists are:

BMW M2 CS, Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray, Defender OCTA, Hyundai Ioniq 6 N and the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Pro.

• The top five 2026 World Urban Car finalists are:

Alfa Romeo Junior, Baojun Yep Plus / Chevrolet Spark EUV, Firefly, Hyundai Venue and Wuling Binguo / Ari Poly.

All vehicles competing in the five categories above are eligible for the 2026 World Car Design of the Year award. The top three finalists will be announced virtually via World Car TV on Tuesday, 3rd March 2026.

Winners in all six categories will be announced on Wednesday, 1st April 2026, during a live World Car Awards ceremony at the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). This year marks the 21st year of the World Car Awards partnership with the show.

Three South African motoring journalists are members of the panel of 98 who will vote in the World Car of the Year.

They are:

Lerato Matebese – Founding Editor: Petrolhead Africa

He is an award-winning motoring journalist who entered the motor industry at the beginning of 2006 as the then SAGMJ (South African Guild of Motoring Journalists) bursary student and, in the process, contributed to a vast number of motoring titles, comprising both magazines and newspapers. He is formerly the Publishing Editor of Top Gear magazine in South Africa and currently the Founding Editor of Petrolhead Africa.

Brenwin Naidu – Section Editor: Sunday Times Lifestyle Motoring and Sowetan Motoring

He began his journalistic career in 2011 as a cadet reporter at Caxton Community Newspapers in Johannesburg. In 2013, he forayed into automotive writing, joining the Surf4Group with its two electronic media titles, Motormag and Surf4Cars. He was approached in 2014 for online editorship of the IgnitionLIVE website, the sister platform of the IGNITION TV channel, which has since been absorbed into the TimesLIVE portal. In 2015, aged 22, he was appointed editor of the Sunday Times Motoring supplement.

Hannes Oosthuizen – Contributor: Cars.co.za

He studied journalism at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. A brief stint as a sports editor for Paarl Post followed before he joined CAR magazine in 2001. He eventually became the youngest-ever editor of CAR in 2011, a position he occupied for two years. He left CAR in 2013 to experience the other side of the industry. Now, as Cars.co.za's Special Projects Manager, Hannes is tasked with ensuring visitors to this platform are exposed to the most useful and relevant advice and information possible. He heads up the Cars.co.za Consumer Awards programme as well as the Cars.co.za Owner Satisfaction Survey project.

• Locally, the 30 semi-finalists for the 2026 South African Car of the Year (COTY) competition were announced during December. During this month, the COTY jury will select finalists from the semi-finalist list. They will then conduct an intensive two-day testing process in March, scoring each contender to determine category winners and ultimately crown the overall winner of the prestigious 2026 South African Car of the Year competition. The winners will be announced in May 2026.