World Car of the year finalists

The top three finalists for the seventh edition of World Car of the Year, World Performance Car, World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year awards were announced today. The announcement was made at a press conference hosted by Bridgestone Corporation and the New York International Auto Show at the Geneva International Motor Show.

The winners will be declared at the New York International Auto Show on April 21, 2011.

The entry list consisted of 39 vehicles from all over the world initially, and then a short list of 10 finalists was made out of which the top three contenders for the overall 2011 World car of the year title were selected. The final three contenders are Audi A8, BMW 5 Series and Nissan LEAF.

The next category, World Performance Car of the Year 2011 had criteria where the nominee’s must demonstrate a specific and overt sports/performance orientation while satisfying the same availability criteria as for the overall World Car of the Year award, the top three finalists for the 2011 World Performance Car award are Ferrari 458 Italia, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Porsche 911 Turbo.

The third category is the World Green Car of the year 2011. This is considered as more of a complex category of awards due to various “Green Technologies” available in the market. Three green experts were appointed by the World Car Steering Committee to extensively review all documentation and specs associated with each candidate. They then created a short-list of finalists for review by the sixty-six jurors in their second round of voting in February. The sixty-six member jury chose the following top three finalists for the 2011 World Green Car* award: the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition, the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan LEAF.

The fourth category is known as the World Car Design of the year. A design panel consisting of five highly respected world design experts was asked to first review each candidate, and then establish a short-list of recommendations for the jurors. Jurors then voted on the experts' recommendations. The top three design finalists as chosen by the jurors are, Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Aston Martin Rapide and Ferrari 458 Italia.