The World Car Awards nominations have been announced.

The journey on The Road to the World Car continues with today’s announcement of the finalists in all five award categories.

This release kicks off the countdown for the 2015 World Car Awards (the WCAs) prize-giving ceremony to be hosted by the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), Bridgestone Corporation and Autoneum on Thursday, April 2, 2015. Winners of the 2015 World Car of the Year, World Luxury Car, World Performance Car, World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year will all be declared at this time.

A jury of 75 distinguished international automotive journalists selected the following finalists in the World Car of the Year, World Luxury Car and World Performance Car categories by secret ballot, based on their experience with each candidate as part of their professional work. For more details about our jurors, and their outlets please visit our web site: www.wcoty.com and click < Jurors.

The international accounting firm KPMG tabulated the jurors’ ballots and announced the finalists on the evening of February 9.   

The 2015 World Car of the Year (WCOTY) will be selected from the following ten finalists listed in alphabetical order:

• BMW 2 Series Active Tourer                  
• Citroën C4 Cactus
• Ford Mustang
• Hyundai Genesis
• Jeep Renegade
• Mazda2
• Mercedes-Benz C-Class
• MINI 5 door / MINI 4 door
• Nissan Qashqai
• Volkswagen Passat

The 2015 World Luxury Car will be chosen from one of these top ten finalists:

• BMW i8
• BMW X6
• Cadillac ATS Coupe
• Cadillac Escalade / ESV
• Kia K900
• Lexus NX
• Lexus RC
• Lincoln MKC
• Mercedes-Benz S Coupe
• Range Rover Autobiography Black LWB

The 2015 World Performance Car top ten finalists are:

• Audi S1
• Audi S3
• Audi TT / TTS
• Bentley Continental GT Speed
• BMW M4 Coupe / M3 Sedan
• Corvette Z06
• Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
• Jaguar F-TYPE R Coupe
• Lexus RC-F
• Mercedes-Benz AMG GT

The 2015 World Green Car category is handled differently. Five experts in “green” technology were appointed by the World Car Awards Steering Committee to extensively review all documentation and specs associated with each candidate on the list of nominees.  The experts then create a short-list of finalists for review by the 75 jurors in their second round of voting this month. 

The finalists for 2015 are:

• BMW i8
• Hyundai x35 / Tucson Fuel Cell
• Kia Soul EV
• Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine
• Volkswagen Golf GTE

The five experts on the advisory panel are in alphabetical order: Phil Berg (USA - PopularMechanics.com); Richard Bremner (UK - Autocar magazine), Claus-Peter Koeth (Germany - automobil-industrie.de); Yumi Kawabata (Japan - environmental journalist) and John Voelcker (USA - GreenCarReports.com).

Cars eligible for the 2015 World Car Design of the Year award are taken from the list of World Car candidates or may be included as a stand-alone entry provided the vehicle is available in quantities of at least 10 in one major market during the period beginning January 1, 2014 and ending May 31, 2015.  Candidates may be pre-production or all-new production.

Again, a design panel consisting of five highly respected world design experts was asked to first review each candidate, then establish a short-list of recommendations for the jurors. The design experts are: Masatsugu Arimoto (Japan – Freelance design journalist); Silvia Baruffaldi (Italy – Auto & Design magazine); Gernot Bracht (Germany – Pforzheim Design School); Sam Livingstone (UK - Car Design Research and Royal College of Art) and Tom Matano (USA - School of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco).

The five finalists chosen for the jurors are:

• BMW 2 Series Active Tourer
• Citroën C4 Cactus
• Mercedes-Benz C-Class
• Porsche Macan
• Volvo XC90

The Road to the World Car began in Paris on October 2, followed by a stop in Los Angeles for a test-drive of the North American contenders in November, and continues with the finalists’ announcement. The next stop is at the Geneva International Auto Show on Tuesday, March 3 when the top three finalists in all categories will be announced.   The journey ends at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday, April 2^nd, 2015 when all winners are declared.