The "World Car of the Year is Kia EV3"

On the 16th (local time) at 9 a.m., a cheer erupted when Kia EV3 was announced as the 'World Car of the Year' at the 2025 World Car Awards held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, USA. Jose Munoz, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, and Luc Donkerwolke, Chief Design Officer of the Global Design Headquarters, stood up from their seats and congratulated each other with a handshake.

Stephen Center, Chief Operating Officer of Kia America, is taking a commemorative photo for the EV3's World Car of the Year award on Dec. 16 (local time). /Courtesy of Kia
Kia EV3 receives the top award for 'World Car of the Year' (WCOTY) at the 2025 New York International Auto Show World Car Awards held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, USA. Steve Center (center), Chief Operating Officer of Kia North America, is receiving the trophy. /Courtesy of Kim Ji-hwan

The World Car Awards is an award ceremony that launched in 2004. It is regarded as one of the top three automobile awards in the world, along with the 'North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year' (NACTOY) and 'European Car of the Year' (COTY). Notably, the World Car Awards targets the entire globe rather than specific regional markets, and it evaluates vehicles that have sold over 10,000 units annually, which gives it significant symbolic value.

On that day, the small electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) EV3 was selected as the WCOTY, allowing Hyundai Motor Group to continue its record of winning for four consecutive years. The Ioniq 5 was selected as WCOTY in 2022, the Ioniq 6 in 2023, and the EV9 in 2024. Including the award of Kia's North American strategic SUV Telluride in 2020, the company has been selected five times in the last six years. The final competitors nominated were the Casper Electric (local name Insta) from Hyundai Motor and BMW's X3.

Hyundai Casper Electric is recognized as the World’s Car of the Year in the electric vehicle category at the 2025 New York International Auto Show World Car Awards held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, USA on Dec. 16 (local time). José Muñoz (left), CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, is announcing his acceptance remarks. /Courtesy of Kim Ji-hwan

The Casper Electric was also selected as the World Electric Vehicle of the Year, easing the disappointment. With this award, Hyundai Motor Group achieved recognition in a total of two categories at the 2025 World Car Awards. The World Car Awards consists of six categories: WCOTY, World Electric Vehicle of the Year, high-performance vehicle, luxury vehicle, urban vehicle, and vehicle design of the year.

Meanwhile, this year, the high-performance vehicle is the Porsche 911 Carrera GTS, the luxury vehicle is the Volvo EX90, the urban vehicle of the year is BYD's Seagull, and the vehicle design of the year is Volkswagen's ID. Buzz.