World Car Awards Finalists Announced

The World Car Awards has announced its finalists in its four categories: World Car of the Year, World Performance Car, World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year. The winners will be announced at the New York Auto Show on April 5. To be eligible for nomination, cars had to be on sale between January 1, 2011, and May 30, 2012. 

The nominees for World Car of the Year are the BMW 3-series, Porsche 911, and Volkswagen Up. It is the third time the 3-series has been nominated, and it won in 2006

The nominees for World Performance Car are the Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4, McLaren MP4-12C and Porsche 911. It is the sixth time that the Porsche 911 has been nominated. For this category at least 500 examples must be made per year. 

The nominees for World Green Car are the Ford Focus Electric, Mercedes-Benz C250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY and Peugeot 3008 Hybrid. 

The nominees for World Design of the Year are the Citroen DS5, Land Rover Evoque and Volkswagen Up. 

The World Car Awards are decided by an international group of 66 automotive journalists from 25 countries. The awards were first given out in 2004. 

Last year's winner for World Car of the Year was the Nissan Leaf with the BMW 5-series and Audi A8 coming in second and third, respectively. The World Performance Car was the Ferrari 458 Italia with the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Porsche 911 Turbo coming in second and third, respectively. 

This is the first year Green Car of the Year and World Design of the Year awards.