WORLD CAR AWARDS THE ROAD AHEAD JANUARY 2018 INTRODUCTION Peter Lyon - Chairman, World Car Awards Happy New Year. And welcome to World Car’s 14th year Jurors may have already voted in five categories – WCOTY, and fifth as the planet’s No 1 car awards program in terms Performance, Luxury, Green and Urban – to whittle down of media reach. Speaking of media exposure, many drive the contenders for this year, but as far as our sixth award, stories from our Los Angeles Test Drives last November the World Car Design of the Year, is concerned, we look have, or are in the process of, appearing in global forward to some extra styling expertise. Legendary publications and websites. So keep an eye out for those. designers Gordon Murray and Shiro Nakamura will join World Car’s four other design experts to narrow down the By the time this newsletter reaches you, our 82 jurors field of over 30 contenders this year. would have just completed their first round of online voting and KPMG would have tabulated those secret results and And just as the first voting round got underway, the motor prepared them for our second round in February, a time show season started in earnest with the CES and Detroit when we select this year’s winners in six categories. Auto Shows happening back to back. THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS Many of our jurors attended both events to check out For the third year in a row, World Car will display at least upcoming models and focus on the latest developments in two category-winning vehicles at a special stand inside the self-driving, electrification, facial recognition technology, London Motor Show site from May 17-20. A.I. and connectivity. The World Car steering committee would like to take this opportunity to welcome Japanese luxury leather goods manufacturer, Neu Interesse as World Car’s most recent official supporter who teamed up with us in early 2018. We look forward to seeing you at the Bridgestone stand in Geneva for our inaugural World Car Person of the Year trophy presentation and at the Javits Center for our prize- giving ceremony in New York City. Until then, safe travels. The motor show season has started in earnest with typically spectacular NAIAS and CES events World Car is always looking to develop as well. In addition to announcing the finalists in six categories inside the Bridgestone stand at the Geneva Motor Show on March 6, we will for the first time introduce the World Car Person of the Year award to a distinguished member of the automotive community. Following on from 2017, we will once again open the New York International Auto Show on March 28 with our media breakfast and high profile awards ceremony in front of World Car will display at least two category-winning vehicles at a over 600 media and OEM representatives. special stand inside the London Motor Show THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS WORLD CHAMPIONS IN THE MAKING BY MIKE RUTHERFORD, DIRECTOR AND VICE-CHAIRMAN, WORLD CAR AWARDS Twenty vehicle manufacturers from across Asia, Europe and North America are through to the final stages of the 2018 World Car Awards. Nine of those finalists are in the running for the most talked about, sought after and important automotive award on the planet - the 2018 World Car of the Year title. It’s no great shock that familiar stalwarts and past WCOTY winners such as BMW, Mazda, Nissan and VW have been voted into the prestigious Top Ten this time around. But fast-improving Kia and born again Alfa Romeo are welcome additions to that ten-strong list, too - as is a buoyant Volvo Volkswagen's new Polo: Out of the running for WCOTY, but in with which can do little wrong at present. a chance for World Urban Car glory The same goes for Land Rover which has just achieved the That elimination was unexpected but is possibly a sign unthinkable by winning enough votes to ensure that two of of the times. After all, Volkswagen has been producing its all-new models are in a position to compete for WCOTY Polo superminis for the last 43 years. And its latest (sixth glory. generation) version that will see it through to Polo’s 50th birthday is not as cute, distinctive and VW-like as its Nissan, with its new LEAF, will be defending the title it predecessors. won with the original version back in 2011. And although Volkswagen should be relieved that its T-Roc has qualified, But at least the all-new Polo stands a one in five chance there must be disappointment at the company’s HQ in of claiming the World Urban Car crown at our prize-giving Wolfsburg that its latest version of the Polo did not. ceremony in New York on the morning of March 28. This year VW was hoping to repeat what it achieved in VW knows it’s up against stiff competition, though - from 2010 when it won the WCOTY trophy with its (previous conventional, up to 4.2m long superminis such as the Ford generation) Polo. But a follow up victory in 2018 is not to Fiesta, Nissan Micra and Suzuki Swift, plus the cleverly- be, following the revelation that the latest version of its designed Hyundai KONA SUV which looks large in the flesh, big-selling supermini has not earned Top 10 status and is but is in fact only 4.165m long and therefore just within the therefore out of the WCOTY running. new World Urban Car rules. THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS It’s a hugely important category this, as small cars already sell in colossal numbers in Europe and Asia and will become increasingly popular as demand intensifies for precious road space and parking bays across the globe. All over the world the trend is that more people are moving from rural to urban areas in search of employment and improved social lives. This has to mean that small (but not necessarily tiny) cars are the future for the motoring masses. Over the years Audi has been awarded eight World Car trophies - that’s more than any other company has won Luxury crossovers and SUVs continue to perform well - the Range in the history of the competition. But its German and Rover Velar is a WCOTY and World Car Design finalist Japanese rivals in the World Luxury Car class are highly impressive this year, so the serial World Car winner from The finalists in the WCOTY division and the five supporting Ingolstadt may struggle to beat exciting offerings from categories are a deliciously diverse lot, though. In no BMW, Lexus and Porsche - the latter having a 40 per cent particular order of importance, there are - as expected - chance of winning the category thanks to the inclusion of conventional superminis, compact cars and mid-sized the Panamera and Cayenne. to large saloons/sedans (some sporty, some not), plus a traditional minivan/MPV in the mix. Hot hatches, But both Audi (with RS 3) and Lexus (LC 500) also have crossovers, sports cars, Grand Tourers, a luxury limo or a chance of victory in the World Performance Car sector two, plus a pure-electric are other contenders. where the comparatively modest Honda Civic Type R has also qualified as a finalist, along with the Alfa Romeo Giulia But it’s the small/medium/large, modest/premium/ Quadrifoglio and BMW M5. luxury crossovers or SUVs that dominate - not least because they’re present in most of our 2018 World Car The group of 2018 Word Green Car contenders is dominated categories. On this evidence, the petrol/gasoline or diesel - surprisingly, perhaps - by American manufacturers. SUV remains in rude health and is still extremely popular Another surprise is that more pure-electrics have not made with World Car jurors based in cities, towns and rural areas it through to the Green finals this year, thereby suggesting across the globe. At the very least, it’s fair to conclude that that there’s some way to go before the world accepts them these SUVs are among the best, most fit for purpose and as genuine and affordable alternatives to petrol/gasoline, desirable cars in the world today. diesel, and LPG models. Equally true is that with just one pure-electric candidate (LEAF) in the World Car finals in 2018, the much talked about ‘electric car revolution’ is still limping along slowly instead of surging forward as it should be doing by now. Despite the growing objections from politicians and environmentalists to diesel and gasoline cars, they continue to account for the overwhelming majority of sales on the world stage. At the same time, pure-electrics still sell in minuscule volumes. And unless and until EVs cost less to buy new and travel further after each recharge, demand and sales will The Nissan LEAF is the only pure-electric candidate left in the World Car finals remain desperately low. THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS 2018 WORLD CAR AWARDS FINALISTS WORLD CAR WORLD LUXURY CAR WORLD CAR DESIGN OF THE YEAR OF THE YEAR Audi A8 Alfa Romeo Giulia BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo Citroen C3 Aircross BMW X3 Lexus LS Lexus LC 500 Kia Stinger Porsche Cayenne Range Rover VELAR Land Rover Discovery Porsche Panamera Renault Alpine A110 Mazda CX-5 Volvo XC60 Nissan LEAF WORLD PERFORMANCE CAR Range Rover VELAR NATIONS WITH THE MOST Toyota Camry Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio CONTENDERS IN THE Volkswagen T-Roc Audi RS 3 2018 WORLD CAR AWARDS Volvo XC60 BMW M5 FINALS Honda Civic Type R 2018 WORLD Lexus LC 500 Germany 11 URBAN CAR Japan 9 WORLD GREEN CAR USA 3 Ford Fiesta Britain 2 Hyundai KONA BMW 530e iPerformance Italy 2 Nissan Micra Chevrolet Cruze Diesel Korea 2 Suzuki Swift Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid France 2 Volkswagen Polo Nissan LEAF Sweden 1 THE ROAD TO WORLD CAR TAKES MANY PATHS CES 2018: ANOTHER GAMBLE BY JENS MEINERS, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE WORLD CAR AWARDS "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas," is a Asian manufacturers are leaving their mark with ambitious popular motto in the desert metropolis dedicated to new products as well.