World car of the year finalists announced

The shortlist for one of the automotive world's most coveted awards has been revealed ahead of the awards ceremony in New York this April.

The 10 finalists that will compete for the title of 2015 World Car of the Year are the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, the Citroën C4 Cactus, the Ford Mustang, the Hyundai Genesis, the Jeep Renegade, the Mazda2, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the MINI 5 door / MINI 4 door, the Nissan Qashqai, and the Volkswagen Passat.

The winner will be chosen by a jury of 75 international motoring journalists who have put each of the cars through their paces and the prize awarded on Thursday, April 2 at the New York International Auto Show.

For all categories except the Green Car award, the 75-member strong jury will simply vote for the winner via a secret ballot, whereas the winning green car will be selected in part by a panel of green technology experts who have set the final shortlist of candidates based on their environmentally friendly credentials.

The final five cars, which this year includes the BMW i8, Hyundai x35 / Tucson Fuel Cell, Kia Soul EV, Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine, and the Volkswagen Golf GTE, will be tested and reviewed by the main panel of judges and a winner selected.

As well as the overall winner, prizes will also be given in a number of other categories including Luxury Car of the Year, Performance Car of the Year and Green Car of the Year.

BMW must be hopeful of its chances at this year's ceremony as it has models nominated in every category.

As well as having the 2 Series Active Tourer and the new five-door Mini selected as finalists for the headline award, its eco-friendly sportscar, the i8, is a finalist for Luxury Car and for Green Car of the Year.

The BMW X6 crossover coupé has also made the final shortlist for Luxury Car of the Year while the benchmark setting BMW M4 and M3 have made the cut in the Performance Car category, too.