It’s that time of the year when juries hand out awards to vehicles that excel in their specific categories. One of these is the Japan EV of the Year, jointly organized by Enechange and EVsmart.

The winner of the inaugural award was the Nissan Sakura, but this year sees things shaken up. Firstly, the top three are mostly affordable EVs, priced between ¥3,000,000 (P1.1 million) and ¥4,000,000 (P1.5 million). Secondly, none of them are Japanese.

The humble BYD Dolphin takes first place with 241 points, followed by the Hyundai Kona Electric with 151 points, and then the BYD Atto 3 with 145 points.

If you want to know the other vehicles that those three beat out, here are the rest of the nominees:

• Abarth 500e
• ASF 2.0
• Audi Q4 e-Tron
• Audi Q8 e-Tron
• BMW iX1
• BMW i5
• HW Electro ELEMO-L
• Lexus RZ450e
• Mitsubishi Minicab-MiEV
• Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV
• Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV
• Tesla Model 3
• Tesla Model S
• Tesla Model X
• Volkswagen ID.4

Ironic that none of the Japanese EVs made it to the top of the list, which goes to show that Japan still has quite a long way when it comes to electric vehicles. But with how complicated the future is for this method of propulsion, only time will be able to tell if they’ll be able to catch up.