TORONTO, Canada – Tuesday, September 15, 2026 – The Road to World Car 2027 officially starts today, beginning a new season for the world’s number one automotive awards program and its 100 international jurors.
The World Car Awards begins its 23rd season from a position of real strength. Independent media intelligence platform AITASTIC recently confirmed the World Car Awards as the most visible automotive awards program globally for the 14th consecutive year, with more reach than any other global, regional or national automotive awards program.
World Car also leads the automotive awards visibility rankings in the US, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia, with more than 493 million people reached during the 2026 season.
Now the focus turns back to the cars and over the coming months, World Car’s highly respected automotive journalists will test and evaluate the eligible vehicles in markets around the world before voting to determine the winners of the 2027 World Car Awards.
The Road to World Car will take the jury through a series of key milestones, starting with today’s announcement of eligible vehicles, prior to the annual LA Test Drives in November, providing jurors another opportunity to get behind the wheel of many of the contenders.
The first major results will arrive in January when the Top 10 finalists for World Car of the Year and the Top 5 finalists for World Luxury Car, World Performance Car, World Urban Car, and World Car Design of the Year are revealed.
World Car Person of the Year will follow in February before the car field is narrowed again with the announcement of the Top Three in the World finalists at the beginning of March.
Then it’s on to New York, where the journey reaches its climax and the 2027 World Car Award winners will be revealed at the New York International Auto Show.
Chair of the World Car Steering Committee, Steve Fowler, said: “There’s always something special about the start of a new World Car season because, after all the planning, it’s time to get back to what World Car is really about – driving, evaluating and celebrating the very best new cars from around the world.
“We’re starting the Road to World Car 2027 in a very strong position, having once again been independently confirmed as the world’s number one automotive awards programme. That’s something everyone involved with World Car can be immensely proud of, but we’re always looking forward.
“Our jurors are among the most respected and influential automotive journalists in the world, and they bring an enormous amount of experience, knowledge and, importantly, different perspectives from different markets. I’m really looking forward to seeing which cars rise to the top as the journey unfolds over the coming months.”
The 2027 season also sees World Car continuing with its revised jury panel and Steering Committee.
Fowler chairs the World Car Steering Committee alongside Ryan Blair, Vice-President, World Car Awards; Jens Meiners, chair emeritus; Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, senior director; Jenni Newman, director of juror relations; and Carlos Sandoval, director, LATAM.
The Road to World Car 2027 begins today and ends in New York in March 2027. Along the way, 100 jurors around the world will drive, assess and vote on the cars competing to become the next World Car Award winners.
The 2027 provisional list of all eligible vehicles is now posted to our web site.
Follow The Road to World Car 2027: Timeline
You can view our 2027 launch video on World Car TV (published within the next 24 hours): https://www.youtube.com/
The Road to the World Car Awards annual journey would not be possible without the support of our official partners: AITASTIC Research & Consult AG, Brembo, KPMG, the New York International Auto Show, and Newspress (Official Media Partner). Thank you to our partners.
- World Car of the Year: https://www.worldcarawards.
com/vehicles/1/World-Car-of- the-Year - World Urban Car: https://www.worldcarawards.
com/vehicles/10/World-Urban- Car - World Luxury Car: https://www.worldcarawards.
com/vehicles/8/World-Luxury- Car - World Performance Car: https://www.worldcarawards.
com/vehicles/3/World- Performance-Car
