The jury of the German Car of the Year 2026 award has announced its winners across the usual five subcategories. Not a single winning car was made in Germany.
The award committee praised vehicles from the United States and South Korea this time around, and only found one European car worth mentioning. Note that the results below are for the secondary nominations, while the main winner remains to be announced on November 17, 2025. Knowing GCOTY, though, the grand prize will most likely go to one of the subcategory winners.
Dacia Bigster claimed the prize in the Budget nomination (below €25,000). Skoda Elroq won Best Compact (€25,000–40,000). Ioniq 9 was recognized as the Best Premium Vehicle (€40,000–70,000). Cadillac’s all-electric Vistiq took the award as the Best Luxury Vehicle (€70,000+). Finally, Lucid Air Sapphire was deemed the Best Sports Car.
In this year’s short list of five models, four are SUVs and four are all-electric. GCOTY-2025 looked drastically different with BMW 5-Series claiming the grand prize and Best Premium Vehicle, Porsche 911 GTS winning in the Sports Car category, and Audi Q6 topping the Best Electric Vehicle list (now discontinued).
