“We celebrate all fantastic cars, whatever form of power they use”

Electric cars dominate the contenders for the World Car Awards this year, according to the list just published by the organisers.

The three rivals for the overall World Car of the Year title are the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Kia EV6 – all brilliant and all electric.

When it comes to World Luxury Car, only the Genesis GV70 uses a good old internal-combustion engine; it’s up against the BMW iX and Mercedes EQS.

Electrification is rife in the World Urban Car category with the Vauxhall Mokka and Toyota Yaris Cross – the Volkswagen Tiguan a surprise third contender.

Surely you can rely on World Performance Car to forego electrification? Not quite. Against the BMW M3/M4 and Toyota GR86/Subaru BRZ, there’s the Audi e-tron GT – and nobody can argue that the GT isn’t fast or fun. Or beautiful – as its nomination alongside the Ioniq 5 and EV6 for World Car Design of the Year proves.

The organisers of the awards have even gone so far as to have a World Electric Vehicle of the Year category, featuring the e-tron GT again, the Ioniq 5 again, and the Mercedes EQS again. Maybe we should have a World Non-electric Car of the Year category next year – not everyone wants to, or can, go electric, of course.

I say ‘we’ because chief columnist Mike Rutherford and I are judges in the World Car Awards, along with 100 other journalists from 33 countries around the world. And we are asked to vote on cars that have been launched on two or more continents in the past year.

The simple fact is that more electrified cars are being launched than non-electrified cars, while many car makers have already stopped developing internal combustion engines. That absolutely does not mean that we can’t still celebrate and enjoy them – we will. And we’ll do that for all fantastic cars, whatever form of power they use. 

Click here for our list of the best electric cars to buy...