The eight category winners for the 2026 UK Car of the Year award has been announced and the final overall winner will be decided from this group.
Three companies in particular will be happy each with two cars listed. Renault has its popular 5 (below) and the Alpine A290 in the shortlist for best small car and best performance car categories, while Audi features both the A6 and A6 Avant for the executive and estate awards.
Meanwhile the Kia-Hyundai group have both the new Kia EV4 (family car – above) and Hyundai Ioniq 9 (large crossover – above) in the shortlist, with the Citroen C3/e-C3 Aircross (small crossover) and the Skoda Elroq (medium crossover) both making up the final eight.
The list for the UK Car of the Year is dictated by the car’s UK on sale date and the overall winner will be announced on 26 February. 2025’s winner was the Kia EV3.