The European Car of the Year 2025 is the Renault 5 Electric/Alpine A290

With the Geneva Motor Show disappearing, the jury of the European Car of the Year (COTY) has once again decided to announce the winner at the Brussels Motor Show, as it did in 2023.

This year, there were not seven but eight finalist cars to choose from by the 60 jury members, all European car journalists coming from 23 countries. 42 different models were candidates for the election of 2025, and out of them, the jury had to choose 7 finalists. As said, there are 8 cars this year because the jury estimated that there wasn’t enough difference between the electric Renault 5 and its more sporty cousin, the A290, to choose only one of them. So, the two cars were taken as one single finalist.

The seven finalists are, in alphabetical order, the Alfa Romeo Junior, the Citroën C3/ë-C3, the Cupra Terramar, the Dacia Duster, the Hyundai Inster, the Kia EV3, and the Renault 5/Alpine 290. As one can see, the jury has been very moderate, price-wise, in its choice this year, and, secondly, internal combustion engines are partly reappearing in comparison to the latest elections from recent years.

The verdict

And the winner is… Renault 5/Alpine 290, as could be expected. There could have been a little doubt because the French manufacturer already won last year, but this hasn’t bothered the jury too much. The twin cars from Renault won with a fairly large margin (353 points) from the Kia EV3 (291 points), the Citroën C3 arriving third with 215 points.

Fourth is the Dacia Duster (172 points), which is quite a surprise with such ‘heavy’ contenders. It is closely followed by the Hyundai Inster (168 points), which also performed well. The Cupra Terramar came in sixth with 165 points, and the Italian flair of the Alfa Junior couldn’t persuade the jury entirely, so it arrived seventh (136 points).

WWCOTY

For 15 years, there’s also been a worldwide female Car of the Year jury, representing 82 women car journalists from at least 55 countries. The procedure of this all-female jury is a bit different. First, the jury appoints six category winners. For 2025, the jury had to choose from 81 valid candidates.

These six announced winners will go through to the final round of judging to determine the winner of WWCOTY’s top award. The Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year winner will be announced on the YouTube channel at 00:00 (New Zealand time) on 6 March, two days before International Women’s Day.

Coinciding with the announcement of the best in each category, the Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year also announces the winner of two important awards: the Best Tech Award for the best technology in the automotive world and the Sandy Myhre Award for the brand most committed to women.

Here are the eight awards:

At the beginning of March, we will know which car is the final WWCOTY winner in one of these six categories.