17 April 2025 - The voting results were tabulated and a live announcement of winners in six award categories was made at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday, 16 April 2025.

A jury of 96 distinguished international automotive journalists from 30 countries selected the Top Three in the World finalists by secret ballot based on their evaluation of each eligible vehicle as part of their on-going professional work.

This is the second consecutive World Car of the Year win for Kia and third World Car of the Year win overall. The Kia EV9 won last year’s top honour while the Kia Telluride won the title in 2020. Today’s win brings the total number of awards won by Kia to six in World Car’s 21-year history.

“It is an immense honour for everyone at Kia that the EV3 has been awarded the 2025 World Car of the Year title. This award highlights Kia’s global leadership in providing design-led, technologically advanced, sustainable mobility solutions and how the EV3’s class-leading attributes redefine the user experience for customers worldwide,” said Ho Sung Song, President and CEO at Kia.

The KIA EV3 was chosen from an initial list of 52 contenders from all over the world then a short list of three finalists as announced on March 18th, 2025. The 2025 Top Three in the World finalists are the BMW X3, the Hyundai Inster / Casper Electric and the Kia EV3.

Note: Vehicles eligible for World Car of the Year title must be produced in volumes of at least 10,000 units/year, must be priced below the luxury-car level in their primary markets, and must be “on-sale” in at least two major markets (China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Latin America, USA) on at least two separate continents within the period January 1, 2024 and March 30, 2025.