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2018 World Car of the Year finalists announced

The finalists for the World Car of the Year awards have been announced, with the winner set to be announced at the New York motor show in April.


Between now and then jurors are scheduled to have a second round of test drives in the finalists.

Final votes will be submitted before the Geneva show in March, where the organising committee will announce the top three vote getters in each category.



Above: Volkswagen T-Roc, the only WCOTY finalist not scheduled to go on sale in Australia.

2018 World Car of the Year finalists

As was the case last year, a vehicle from either Asia or Europe is going to walk away with the main prize. European contenders account for six of the slots, with Asian models occupying the rest.

Drilling down to a country level, Japan tops the charts with three finalists, the UK two, Germany two, Italy one, South Korea one and Sweden one.

Traditionalists should look away now, because six of the finalists are crossover vehicles. Only three sedans and one hatchback made the cut this year.


2018 World Luxury Car of the Year

Like last year four of this year's finalists in the luxury category come from Europe, although this time around all four of the European representatives come from Germany. The sole non-German vehicle, predictably, hails from Japan.

If this writer was a betting person, he'd place money on a Volkswagen Group vehicle walking away with this prize, as brands owned by the German automaker account for three-fifths of the finalists.


2018 World Performance Car of the Year

As is to be expected, there's no shortage of high-priced machinery in contention. That said, the Civic Type R is the least expensive finalist in this category since the previous generation model made the cut in 2015.

This remains, again, a crossover-free zone. The only crossover to get this far in the performance category was the Range Rover Sport SVR in 2016.



Above: Ford Fiesta. Finally a finalist with an American parent.

2018 World Urban Car of the Year

We're four-fifths of the way down this year's list of finalists, and it's only now we see a model from an American company, albeit one engineered primarily for Europe.

Fun fact, this is the only category to be dominated by vehicles with hatch access to the boot.


2018 World Green Car of the Year

Given the current relatively low oil price, not to mention America's on-going love for large crossovers and pickup trucks, it's amazing to see half of the finalists in the green vehicle category hailing from American brands.

Not only do we see a diesel car nominated from American, but this also happens to be the only category without a finalist from the Volkswagen Group.

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