World Car of the Year 2027 contenders reveal a massive gap between Chinese and American automakers

The contenders for the 2027 World Car of the Year award have been revealed.

Two key trends immediately stand out when you inspect the list.

The first one is the huge gap between Chinese and American automakers up for the award.

But there’s another obvious point, and it’s fully in tune with the times.

The Oscars of the car world

It is not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but the World Car of the Year award is more or less the equivalent of individual awards for actors and movies.

Without naming names, if you inspect the top ten highest-grossing lead actors in cinematic history, you won’t spot an Oscar winner until you hit number 9.

Several actors who are almost guaranteed to bring box office results have never won major awards, and several award-winning actors star in movies that regularly bomb.

It’s the same with cars.

Years after year, the World Car of the Year – or WCOTY, for short – has often included cars that flop quite heavily.

On this occasion, the situation is a bit different.

This is what stands out about this list

WCOTY judges evaluate vehicles on build quality, innovation, road performance, and value for money.

They don’t make their decisions based on sales, which is telling.

Even so, we should point out that Chinese automakers (such as BYD and Chery) are increasingly dominating the WCOTY candidate lists.

And the same goes for EVs.

Unfortunately for American brands, they’re often absent from WCOTY awards mainly because their main segments are large SUVs and trucks, which are relatively niche segments.

So many World Car of the Year candidates are Chinese

The official provisional eligible candidates list for the 2027 World Car of the Year (WCOTY) awards includes 56 models, and nearly half of all contenders (26 models) come from Chinese brands, while only four are American models.

In theory, under official WCOTY eligibility rules, a candidate must be on sale in at least two major markets across two separate continents.

But in practice, some of these cars are essentially only popular in their native market.

If we wanted to combine WCOTY criteria with sales, the major contenders are the Toyota RAV4 and the Tesla Model Y, arguably the only two truly global models that are also best sellers.

We should also include the BYD Seagull (above) and Seal.

These two cars aren’t available everywhere, but they sell like hot cakes in the markets where they are.

We won’t have to wait long, though.

The winner of the 2027 World Car of the Year will be officially revealed on March 24, 2027 at the New York International Auto Show.

Full list of 2027 World Car of the Year candidates

North America

Chevrolet Aveo

Chevrolet Captiva EV/PHEV

Lincoln Corsair

Tesla Model Y

China

BYD Dolphin Mini

BYD Seagull

BYD Seal 06

BYD Sealion 7

BYD Song Pro

Changan Nevo Q05

Deepal S05

Deepal S07

Chery Q

Omoda 9

Jaecoo J8

iCAUR v23

GAC Aion UT

GAC Aion V

Geely EX2

Galaxy Cruiser 700

Geely Starray EM-i

Lynk & Co 900

Zeekr 8X

MG4 EV Urban

Polestar (Geely) 3

Polestar 5

Xpeng G6

Xpeng L03

Xpeng P7+

Avatr 12

Denza N7

Leapmotor C10

Nio ET5 Touring

Japan

Mazda CX-5

Mazda CX-6e

Mazda EZ-60

Nissan Frontier Pro

Subaru Trailseeker

Subaru Uncharted

Toyota RAV4

Lexus LBX

South Korea

Hyundai Bayon

Hyundai Ioniq 3

Genesis GV60

Kia EV3

Europe

BMW Electric 3 Series

Mini Cooper Electric

Cupra Raval

Mercedes-Benz Electric C-Class

Mercedes-Benz Electric GLC

Mercedes-Benz GLA

Renault Filante

VW Atlas

VW Taramont Pro

Volvo EX60