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PACE AWARD
Honoring Automotive Ingenuity
Recognized worldwide, the PACE Award celebrates innovations that redefine industry standards. If your innovation has been sold to a customer, join us in honoring the innovators driving automotive innovation forward.
Open to automotive suppliers, including traditional, non-traditional, and start-ups. To qualify, the innovation should be commercialized and sold to an OEM company, or have a contracted production date in the near future.
To celebrate over 30 years of PACE, in-person site visits have returned for the finalists of PACE Award!
Once selected, finalists will be notified in August 2026 and announced in September in Automotive News print and online issues.
Questions? Visit the criteria and FAQs sections. If your question isn't answered, please contact the Automotive News awards team.
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PACE PILOT
Igniting Future Innovations
Designed for pre-commercialized innovations, PACE Pilot offers a gateway to transforming automotive and future mobility landscapes. Join fellow innovators as we pave the way into the next generation of automotive technology.
Open to early-stage innovations not yet sold to an OEM customer. To qualify, suppliers, including startups, must have reached a working pilot demonstration phase but are not yet commercialized with a contracted sale.
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Once selected, finalists will be notified in August 2026 and announced in September in Automotive News print and online issues.
Questions? Visit the criteria and FAQs sections. If your question isn't answered, please contact the Automotive News awards team.
TIMELINE
2026 timeline
Applications open: October 2025
Applications close: February 2026
PACE Award In-Person Site Visit Schedule: April - August 2026
PACE Pilot Virtual Pitch Session Schedule: April - August 2026
CRITERIA
Eligibility
Suppliers that contribute products, processes, materials, or services directly to the manufacture of cars or trucks are eligible to apply. For PACE Award, applications are open to global automotive suppliers that have created an innovation or technology for commercialization within the automotive industry. For PACE Pilot, applications are open to global automotive suppliers or tech/mobility companies that have reached a working pilot demonstration phase but are not yet commercialized with a contracted sale.
Requirements
To participate in the PACE Award program, the applicant will be asked to:
- Complete a PACE Award application by the deadline.
- Submit payment.
- Host an In-Person Site Visit for the judges, if selected as a PACE Award Finalist.
To participate in the PACE Pilot program, the applicant will be asked to:
- Complete a PACE Pilot application by the deadline.
- Submit payment.
- Host a Virtual Pitch Session for the judges, if selected as a PACE Pilot Finalist.
All information included should be publishable by the time winners are announced in November 2026. Any confidential information should be noted as “not for public,” “off the record” or “confidential.”
2026 Deadline
Applications open: October 2025
Applications close: February 2026
FAQs
This program is open to global automotive suppliers that have created or are creating an innovation or technology for commercialization within the automotive industry. Eligible to apply are suppliers or startups that contribute products, processes, materials, or services directly to a manufacturer of cars or trucks.
We will be sharing a full breakdown of the cost to participate soon. Please sign up to receive alerts to get notified when the cost breakdown is posted on this page. Click here to sign up for PACE Program alerts.
Submitted and paid applications will be reviewed and judged by an independent panel of PACE Judges with 100+ years of collective industry expertise. To learn more about the current panel of PACE Judges, please visit www.autonews.com/awards/pace/judges/.
Unfortunately, once you have submitted your application, you will not be able to log in to edit the form. If there is factual information that is incorrect or that has been updated, please contact the awards team to request a change.
Please note that changes to the application cannot be made once the final deadline has passed and judging has started.
Please note that changes to the application cannot be made once the final deadline has passed and judging has started.
Finalists will be notified via email and published on AutoNews.com in March 2026. Winners will be announced at the PACE Awards Ceremony and published on AutoNews.com and in an Automotive News print issue in November 2026.
Our awards team is here to help with any technical issues you might experience. Please email Nuha Mosa and include your application code in your email message.
Please note that your account on AutoNews.com is different from the account you create for the PACE program and any other award programs for Automotive News Group. When you click "Enter now" please make sure to register a new account (unless you have submitted to our awards before and already have one). If you still experience any issues logging in, please email Nuha Mosa at nuha.mosa@autonews.com.
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