Article Summary
- The new BMW iX3 will battle the Hyundai Palisade and Nissan Leaf for the World Car of the Year title.
- In the World Electric Vehicle category, the 2026 BMW iX3 fights the Mercedes CLA and Nissan Leaf.
- The BMW M2 CS will have to beat the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray and Hyundai Ioniq 6 N to claim the World Performance Car accolade.
The new BMW iX3 was among the 10 cars in contention for the 2026 World Car of the Year award when WCOTY jurors announced the finalists at the beginning of the year. You’ll be delighted to hear the Neue Klasse SUV has now advanced to the final stage of the competition.
Munich’s all-new EV appears on the shortlist published today by the 98 jurors of the World Car Awards. It must beat the Hyundai Palisade and Nissan Leaf to claim the title. Not only that, but the “NA5” is among the top three finalists in the World Electric Vehicle category as well. To win that award, it needs to finish ahead of the Mercedes-Benz CLA and, once again, the Nissan Leaf.
The second-generation iX3 isn’t the only BMW to make the cut. Competing for the World Performance Car award, the BMW M2 CS will go head-to-head with the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray and the Hyundai Ioniq 6 N. We’ll have to wait until April 1 to find out whether the coupe will triumph in its category. The announcement will be made during the New York International Auto Show, when we’ll also learn the iX3’s result.
The 2026 World Car Awards include several other categories in which BMW is notably absent. Ironically, the company with the roundel has no top-three finalist in the World Luxury Car class. Instead, the Cadillac Vistiq is up against the Lucid Gravity and the Volvo ES90. BMW is also missing from the World Urban Car category, which will go to the Baojun Yep Plus / Chevrolet Spark EUV, the Firefly, or the Hyundai Venue.
Although the Skytop and Speedtop represent some of BMW’s best design work in recent years, neither of the M8-based special editions is in contention for the World Car Design of the Year award. The title will be decided between the Kia PV5, the Mazda 6e (EZ-6), and the Volvo ES90.
Even before the winners are announced, BMW already has a reason to celebrate. At the end of last month, CEO Oliver Zipse was named World Car Person of the Year. The outgoing boss finished ahead of David Craig, Staff Product Manager at GM, and Tisha Johnson, Slate’s Head of Design.
Do these awards matter to everyday customers? Not necessarily, but such titles are feathers in an automaker’s cap and can serve as effective marketing tools to attract more buyers.