The New York Auto Show has hosted the prize-giving ceremony for the World Car of the Year awards for nearly 20 years. Guests in attendance for this year’s laurels might have wondered if they’d ended up at the 2022 New York show, Hyundai taking the same three awards this year as last. In 2022, the Ioniq 5 won World Car of the Year, World Electric Vehicle, and World Car Design of the Year. At this week’s New York Show, the Ioniq 6 repeated that trifecta. The battery-electric sedan beat 29 other vehicles with a variety of powertrains, that initial group whittled down to the BMW X1/iX1, Ioniq 6 and Kia Niro.
The top prize is contested among vehicles sold in at least two major world markets on two continents between January 1, 2022, and March 30, 2023, priced below the luxury-car level in the primary markets, and produced in greater than 10,000 units during the sales timespan.
The Hyundai beat 20 other vehicles for the World Electric Car title, a category the WCOTY board inaugurated in 2022. The market qualification is the same here, but there’s no price cap and the production threshold is lowered to 5,000. The runners-up in the category are the BMW i7 and the Lucid Air. The consolation prize for the Lucid Air was winning the World Luxury Car award, beating the BMW 7 Series/i7 and Genesis G90.
Every vehicle eligible for any of the WCOTY categories can win the World Car Design award, creating a field of 78 entries. A panel of designers that included Ian Callum, Patrick le Quement, Tom Matano, and Shiro Nakamura narrowed the field to the Range Rover, the Lucid Air, and the Ioniq 6, giving the blue ribbon to the Hyundai.
As if that weren’t enough, the Kia EV6 GT won the laurel for World Performance Car ahead of the Toyota GR Corolla and the new Nissan Z, and Hyundai Motor design boss Sangyup Lee won World Car Person of the Year.
The only other manufacturer to get a look in this year was Citroen, its C3 taking home the award for World Urban Car. You can check out the vote rankings for the finalists in all categories at the WCOTY site.
