GENEVA -

During the ongoing Geneva International Motor Show this week, the top three finalists for the World Car of the Year, World Performance Car, World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year awards were announced.

Officials reduced an initial entry list of 39 vehicles to the top three contenders for the 2011 World Car of the Year. The finalists are the Audi A8, the BMW 5 Series and the Nissan LEAF.

To be eligible for the overall World Car Award, the candidates must become available for sale on at least two continents during the period beginning Jan. 1, 2010 and ending May 30 of this year.

The top three finalists for the 2011 World Performance Car Award are the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the Porsche 911 Turbo.
While the winner of the overall World Car award must excel in a broad range of attributes, officials pointed out the World Performance Car award must demonstrate a specific and overt sports and performance orientation while satisfying the same availability criteria as for the overall World Car of the Year award.

Performance Car Award entrants may be chosen from that list of eligible vehicles, or they may be newly introduced variants that satisfy the same criteria, but are derived from existing rather than brand-new models. In all cases, award organizers said that automakers must have a minimum annual production rate of 500 units.

Moving along, the top three finalists for the 2011 World Green Car Award are the BMW 320d Efficient Dynamics Edition, the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan LEAF.

Due to the complexity of some of the “green” technologies, the World Car Steering Committee appointed three green experts to extensively review all documentation and specs associated with each candidate. These experts were Sam Abuelsamid representing North America, Dean Slavnich representing Europe and Tadashi Tateuchi representing Asia.

“We are very pleased and honored to sponsor the 2011 World Green Car Award,” stated Ryoji Yamada, general manager of brand management for Bridgestone Corp.

“The environment is everyone’s responsibility. And throughout our global family of companies, we take this responsibility very seriously,” Yamada continued.

“We believe it is our mission to serve society with superior quality — not just with eco-friendly products but also in the way we produce those products and the way in which we support our many communities with environmentally friendly activities such as wildlife habitats and our Lake Biwa initiative in Japan,” Yamada went on to say.

Finally, award officials said vehicles eligible for the 2011 World Car Design of the Year Award are taken from the list of World Car candidates or they may be units included as a stand-alone entry provided the vehicle is introduced and available for sale in at least one major market during the period beginning Jan. 1, 2010, and ending May 30 of this year.

The design finalists are the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, the Aston Martin Rapide and the Ferrari 458 Italia. The design experts who chose these finalists were  Masatsugu Arimoto (Japan), Silvia Baruffaldi (Italy), Gernot Bracht (Germany), Sam Livingstone (U.K.) and Tom Matano (U.S.).

All winners will be declared at the New York International Auto Show on April 21.  

Vehicles are selected and voted on by an international jury panel composed of 66 top-level automotive journalists from 24 countries around the world. Each juror was appointed by the World Car Steering Committee on the basis of his or her expertise, experience, credibility and influence. And each juror typically drives and evaluates new vehicles on a regular basis as part of their professional work.

Peter Lyon (Japan) and Matt Davis (Italy) are the committee co-chairs while John McCormick (U.S.), Jens Meiners (Germany) and Gerry Malloy (Canada) are the directors.

“Now in their seventh year, the annual World Car awards have become one of the world’s most prestigious, credible and significant programs of its kind,” committee members insisted.

“The awards reflect the reality of the global marketplace, as well as to recognize and reward automotive excellence on an international scale,” they concluded.