Which of these models will be 2026 Car of the Year?

News

5 mins read

18 December 2025

What do the class of 2026 have in common in the new car world? If not too downbeat a hook to draw you into this story: not a great deal of originality. But stick with me.

There were 29 cars from 23 brands at the annual Tannistest in northern Denmark, a test event to help the 59 Car of the Year (COTY) jurors from 23 countries whittle down a longlist of 35 eligible vehicles (some of them weren't represented at the event) to a final shortlist of seven, from which the 2026 COTY will be announced in January.

And what the Tannistest field showcased is an industry wrestling with parallel investments in EVs and combustion-engined vehicles and no wiggle room to take a risk on something truly new.

That's not to say the cars weren't any good - quite the opposite. Many are refined, quiet, comfortable and pleasing to drive, even more with good interiors and impressive technology. Perhaps the best example of this quiet competence is the Skoda Elroq: it must be the 100th four-and-a-half-metre-long electric family crossover launched this decade but it's the very best example yet and worthy of its place on the 2026 COTY shortlist.

And 'not a great deal of originality' means there was still some on display. The Fiat Grande Panda is about as conventional as small cars get underneath but it is just so fun and funky and has so much charm on the surface and to drive. It was the first eligible car for the 2026 COTY award I tested back in January and it still feels fresh now despite the familiarity.

Last year, the Grande Panda's platform twin, the Citroën C3, felt quite charming itself on first acquaintance earlier in 2024, only for it to actually feel quite old when it was lined up next to its peers at Tannis. It shows how right Fiat has got it with the Grande Panda, another welcome addition to the shortlist.

The Alpine A390, DS No8 and Hyundai Ioniq 9 were the other cars at Tannis to have a real freshness and originality about them, albeit with mixed results. The Alpine looks incredible but is not as exciting to drive as it appears. It didn't make the shortlist.

Neither did the DS or the Hyundai. The latter is more deserving than the former because the Ioniq 9 feels so futuristic and is consistently well executed as such a high-quality large car. There's more originality here than any Audi or Mercedes SUV in recent times.

The No8 just made me feel even more confused about the DS brand. Sure, it's quite original, but really, who is going to buy it in a head-to-head with almost anything else of a similar size and price? DS feels like it's in a bit of an echo chamber in France. It says its cars sell well there, but it needs to get out of Paris to realise the rest of us don't have a clue what it is trying to achieve, and why.

While there was no room for DS on the shortlist, there was for Citroën. The C5 Aircross and I didn't gel: I found it too soft to the point of being uncomfortable and unremarkable in terms of its powertrains. Other jurors clearly disagreed. I liked the interior, the space on offer and its value, so perhaps a go on UK roads might leave a better second impression when I test the shortlisted cars.

The C5 Aircross's platform twin, the Jeep Compass, was another to miss out. The first time that Jeep designed and engineered a car solely in Europe - the 2023 Avenger-it won COTY. But the Compass felt so much more like a car done by the numbers and lacked the Avenger's charm. A shame.

Alongside Skoda, Dacia is one of two shortlisted car makers never to have won COTY. The Bigster is shortlisted, and while I have generally warmed to it and appreciate its significance to the brand, it's hard to love it in the same way you can a Duster. Perhaps that's because the Duster is so firmly established as the brand's centre of gravity and has the best styling. Another one to approach with fresh eyes in final testing.

It was a bit of a surprise to see the Renault 4 on the shortlist. Renault has won COTY on the past two occasions, with the Scenic in 2024 and the 5 in 2025, and while the 4 is another objectively good offering, in COTY's Best Car Launched This Year terms the 4 feels like more of the same from the 5 in a slightly different flavour.

The same could apply to the Kia EV4: lots of objective qualities in isolation but not night-and-day different from the EV3 that was shortlisted last year. As you would have read a few weeks ago, we pitted the EV4 against the Elroq and Nissan Leaf while out in Denmark and the Elroq edged it. Let's see what UK roads bring for the Kia too.

The Leaf is the one car I was surprised to see fail to make the shortlist. Perhaps it, too, suffers from feeling like such a familiar proposition in such a crowded segment and struggles to stand out with a real primary selling point other than motorway efficiency, but that's a hard thing to really tease out on these test roads.

Efficiency is one of several calling cards for the Mercedes CLA, the final car on the shortlist. This seems a very compelling proposition and strong pretty much everywhere: great powertrain, excellent ride and handling, quiet and comfortable and with a good interior. It feels like a step-change in EVs from Europe and is better almost everywhere than the Tesla Model 3, even in such areas as efficiency, range and charging.

Several other cars made a good impression on me: the BYD Dolphin Surf is a fantastic small car that's the most charming BYD yet; the Firefly is a credible small rear-wheel-drive EV that is Tardis-like inside and genuinely good fun to drive; the Toyota CH-R+ feels like a big advance in drivability over the vanilla bZ4X on which it is based while retaining the rather odd steering wheel with buttons inspired by an old calculator.

Conversely, some cars will stay with me for different reasons. The Zeekr 7X, a largely generic Chinese crossover, had faulty active cruise control and lane keeping that decided it wanted to take me into a field. One to avoid.

The Leapmotor B10 is a more European-friendly car from Stellantis's Chinese brand. It's cheap and feels it to drive.

Thankfully, these were the exceptions in a largely creditable if not overwhelmingly exciting field. Having correctly predicted (but not necessarily voted for) the winner in each of my previous three years as Autocar's COTY representative, this year feels much harder to call. Do I have to? Probably the Mercedes but there might be a bit too much of my own bias at work here.