Currently reading: Car of the Year 2022: seven finalists chosen

Six of the seven candidates are all-electric; winner to be announced on 28 February

The shortlist of seven nominations for the Car of the Year 2022, the world’s most prestigious new car award, has been announced, after being selected from 38 eligible candidates.

They are the Cupra Born, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Peugeot 308, Renault Mégane E-Tech, and Skoda Enyaq. Of these, only the Peugeot is not pure-electric, which makes this the most EV-intensive shortlist in the award's history. 

It is in direct contrast to last year's list, which contained only two exclusively electric cars, the Volkswagen ID 3 and Fiat 500 Electric

Eligible cars must essentially be new models and available in at least five European countries before the end of 2021.

A total of 61 judges, representing 23 countries, select the seven-strong shortlist in a simple vote.

Second-stage voting takes place in the new year, with the winning car announced in Geneva on Monday 28 February.

Autocar is one of the Car of the Year’s nine sponsoring publications. The 2021 winner was the Toyota Yaris, preceded by the Peugeot 208 in 2020, Jaguar’s I-Pace in 2019 and the Volvo XC40 in 2018.

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Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes. 

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Bignosewhoknows 29 November 2021

In the market for an EV and researched extensively.  Pretty much unanimous consensus among the reviewers is that there is one ESUV that's head and shoulders above the other options. Test drove five of the seven and I'm in complete agreement. Unfashionable and sensible as it seems, when you look at each critical criterion, the Enyaq iV wins. If you look past the badge and the practicality (why is that a negative to some) it's pretty sharply styled.

Admittedly I've not driven the other two and with one being petrol, the Megane is the only other contender, although with a family of five, it was never an option for me, but does look great!

Jeremy 29 November 2021

My money would be on the Megane. 

artill 29 November 2021

With that lot to choose from, If i were Autocar i think i would spoil by ballot paper