GCOTY Awards

The GCOTY Awards, supported by a panel of top-level automotive journalists and experts, is dedicated to celebrating and promoting excellence and innovation within the automotive sector. Each year, we test-drive and evaluate every major new vehicle, assessing them both within their respective categories and in an overall context.

The GCOTY Awards are entering their 8th season.

About GCOTY Awards

GCOTY AWARDS 2026:
THE CLASS WINNERS

A jury of around 40 renowned motor journalists has chosen the class winners for the GCOTY AWARDS 2026 awards.

The five victorious models have been selected from all new cars launched within the past twelve months.

The new “Budget” segment with an entry price of up to 25.000 euros, established to highlight the importance of affordable individual mobility, has been captured by the new Dacia Bigster, the “Compact” segment (up to 40.000 euros) was taken by the Skoda Elroq, the “Premium” segment (40.000 up to 70.000 euros) was won by the Hyundai Ioniq 9, and the Cadillac Vistiq took the “Luxury” category (over 70.000 euros). The “Performance” class winner is the Lucid Air Sapphire.

From those five class leaders, jurors will select the overall winner of the German Car Of The Year 2026 award during extensive testing over a two-day period. The winner will be announced on November 17, 2025.

The independent and highly diverse jury consists of 40 German and international motor journalists. The program is supported by sponsors Aitastic, AutoCom Associates, Bridgestone, Gentex, KST Motorenversuch and ZF.