BMW leads the historical tally with 62 trophies. That figure counts combined overall and category awards—not 62 overall titles. The competition began in 1999 and its last event was held in 2019; it is not an ongoing annual award.
How the ranking counts awards
The totals below come from a secondary historical tally and combine overall titles with class and special-category trophies. They are reported as make or manufacturer-group totals, not as an organizer-issued, like-for-like corporate ranking. The groupings differ: some entries name individual manufacturers, while others combine brands or joint ventures. Read the figures as a reported historical count, not a precise comparison of equivalent corporate entities. Source tally
That distinction matters because “Engine of the Year” can refer to the principal overall prize, but the program also awarded engines in displacement classes and special categories. Mazda said the 2003 overall winner was selected from the eight engine-capacity class winners. Toyota’s 2004 Prius hybrid system, meanwhile, won the overall award plus three other prizes in the same year. Mazda’s 2003 release Toyota’s 2004 release
The 10 manufacturers and groups with the most reported awards
| Rank | Make or group | Combined awards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BMW | 62 |
| 2 | Volkswagen/Audi | 36 |
| 3 | Ferrari | 26 |
| 4 | Honda | 23 |
| 5 | Toyota | 22 |
| 6 | Daimler/Mercedes-Benz | 13 |
| 7 (tie) | Ford | 9 |
| 7 (tie) | BMW-PSA Peugeot Citroën | 9 |
| 7 (tie) | Porsche | 9 |
| 10 | Fiat/Alfa Romeo | 8 |
All totals in the table are from the same secondary tally and include overall and category results. Ford, BMW-PSA Peugeot Citroën and Porsche share the nine-award position; including all three tied entries makes the list ten entries long, with Fiat/Alfa Romeo next at eight. BMW’s 62 is also reported by Autocar as a combined overall-and-category total. Historical tally Autocar retrospective
#1 Best Overall
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What the counts do—and do not—show
BMW’s lead is a combined-awards lead
BMW’s first place is about accumulated trophies across the award program, not a claim that it won the principal overall title 62 times. In 2012, BMW Group said it had earned more than 50 class and overall wins since 1999, and called itself the contest’s most successful automaker that year after winning four of eight displacement categories. Those are BMW Group’s own statements about that year and its record at the time. BMW Group, 2012
Brands and joint ventures are not equivalent units
The tally combines entries such as BMW or Honda with labels such as Volkswagen/Audi, Daimler/Mercedes-Benz, Fiat/Alfa Romeo and BMW-PSA Peugeot Citroën. It does not provide a method for allocating jointly developed engines or consistently consolidating every corporate group. A strict corporate comparison would need a common rule for assigning each engine and trophy; these totals do not establish one.
Rank #2
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Years active also affect a raw total
The competition’s record runs from 1999 through its final event in 2019. Manufacturers’ participation, product portfolios and time in the contest varied, so raw totals are not a rate of success per year. The available figures do not provide the consistently defined year-by-year dataset needed to normalize the ranking by years active.
How overall and category wins can overlap
Annual overall winners provide useful context, but their sequence is not the same thing as this manufacturer tally. Autocar’s retrospective lists Toyota’s 1.0-litre engine as the 1999 overall winner, Honda’s 1.0-litre IMA in 2000, BMW’s 3.2-litre straight-six in 2001 and 4.4-litre V8 in 2002, Mazda’s Renesis in 2003, and Toyota’s Prius hybrid system in 2004. Later overall winners included Volkswagen in 2009 and 2010, Ford from 2012 through 2014, and Ferrari from 2016 through 2019. Autocar’s winners retrospective
Recommended Free Tools
Rank #3
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Toyota’s 2004 Prius illustrates multiple trophies in one year
Toyota’s May 27, 2004 release says the Prius hybrid system won the overall award, Best New Engine, Best Fuel Economy and Best Engine in the 1.4-litre-to-1.8-litre class. Toyota reported a score of 380 points, describing it as the highest score recorded in the competition at that time. That is a manufacturer-reported historical score, not an independent performance measurement. Toyota, May 27, 2004
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A historical award, not a current annual contest
The International Engine of the Year competition began in 1999, and its last event took place in 2019. The 2020 competition was delayed and never scheduled. The historical ranking should therefore be read as a closed record, not as a current annual leaderboard. Competition history
Quick Recap
Best Value
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Rank #4
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