2026 Acko Drive Car of the Year Hyundai Venue Now A Finalist At World Car Awards

The list of the Top Three in the World is out! These are the three finalists across each category of the 2026 World Car Awards. The made-in-India Hyundai Venue joins the Chevrolet Spark EUV electric subcompact SUV and another EV – the Nio Firefly in the top three for 2026 World Urban Car. The Hyundai Venue is a strong contender – balancing tech, performance, efficiency, with great value. The second generation of the subcompact SUV is now only made in India – and was rated top of the pack at the recently concluded 2026 Acko Drive Awards too. 

The fact that it is now a Top Three in the World finalist at the World Car Awards is a nod to Indian manufacturing as well. Incidentally, the 2025 World Urban Car had been the BYD Seagull/Dolphin Mini. It will be all eyes on New York on April 1, 2026, when the winners will be declared at the 2026 World Car Awards ceremony.

The three cars shortlisted for the most prestigious award in the global automotive industry – the 2026 World Car of the Year – are the BMW iX3, Hyundai Palisade, and Nissan Leaf. Each of these cars plays a flagship role for their brand and in many ways could not be more different from one another. As it has been over the past few years, EVs are dominating the shortlist across categories. The iX3 is the first car on BMW’s much touted new Neue Klasse, while the Nissan Leaf is the 3rd generation of one of the longest running production EVs on the planet. It now adopts a crossover body style, and is packed with tech and design innovations. The Hyundai Palisade in its second generation is a massive fullsize SUV that has showed a bold new design direction and luxurious interiors for Hyundai’s global SUV portfolio. This a surprise finalist as many had expected the Mercedes-Benz CLA or Kia EV5 to have snagged a spot here. The Kia EV3 was last year’s WCOTY winner.

Also Read: 2025 World Car Winners Announced: Kia EV3, Hyundai Inster, Volvo EX90, Porsche 911 Carrera GTS, BYD Seagull, Volkswagen ID.Buzz Win Big

The Mercedes-Benz CLA did make a mark with World Car jurors as it has been voted to the top three for World Electric Vehicle. It was also recently unveiled in India with prices expected by mid-April. The youngest award from World Car, the EV category specifically recognises prowess in electric-specific engineering, efficiency, charging, performance, and design. The MMA-platform is a big bet for Mercedes-Benz, and the CLA is the first car off it. It is joined by the BMW iX3 and Nissan Leaf as the other two contenders. The Hyundai Inster mini-EV had won this award in 2025. This is the first time since the category was created in 2022 that a Hyundai Motor Group vehicle is not in the running for this honour. Prior winners have included the Hyundai IONIQ 5 (2022), IONIQ 6 (2023), and the Kia EV9 (2024).

Making the cut in the World Luxury Car space are all EVs also. The luxurious and stylish Cadillac Vistiq, the ground-breaking Lucid Gravity, and joining those two SUVs is a sedan – the Volvo ES90. The latter comes off a shared platform with last year’s winner in this category – the Volvo EX90 SUV. Cadillac has never won in this category while Lucid had won for the Air in 2023, and Volvo in 2025 as stated. The World Luxury Car award was instituted in 2014. brand with most wins in this category is Mercedes-Benz with 5 wins (2014, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2022).

The World Performance Car award has been dominated by Porsche – which has 8 wins here – including the very first award handed out in 2006 and the most recent in 2025! But Porsche did not feature in the top 5 after the first round of voting this year. And the three cars that are in the running for this title are all standout performers for sure. The BMW M2 CS – the meaner, deadlier M2; the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray hybrid sports car with arresting looks; and the Hyundai IONIQ 6 N – the monstrous avatar of the 2023 World Car of the Year. The latter is an EV of course and borrows a lot of the cool innovations seen on the IONIQ 5 N (which in turn was the 2024 World Performance Car winner!). Like the other awards – here too the competition is tight, and it will be curious to see which of these cars ends up with the trophy.

The 2026 World Car Awards jury is made up of 98 automotive journalists from around the world – including this writer proudly representing India. The jury seeks to achieve a balance between regional importance and market relevance. Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board at BMW was declared the 2026 World Car Person of the Year just last week. On the product side, the Top Three in the World is the penultimate step in the World Car Finals which began when the first round of voting has revealed the initial shortlist at the start of the year. The jury then voted in round two – and this decides the top three and subsequently the winners – all tabulated in secret by accounting firm KPMG. The awards are supported by Brembo and AITASTIC. The results for all categories will be handed over in sealed envelopes by KPMG – only to be opened on stage at the ceremony – which has traditionally always been held on the opening day of the New York International Auto Show.