European Car of the Year 2012 Candidates Announced

The first phase of the European “Car of the Year 2012” [COTY] award has been completed with the announcement of the 35 candidates eligible to participate in the voting process.

As with prior events, in order to be a nominee, the contenders had to be new vehicles available now or before the end of this year in five or more European markets, and each has to have the prospect of a minimum of 5,000 annual sales.

A total of 59 journalists representing 23 European countries will cast their votes in two stages, with the first producing a short list of seven nominees, which will be announced on 9 January 2012, while the second round will reveal the winner that will be made known in March, 2012.

Notably, the organizers of the COTY have changed the procedure for the announcement of the winner. Instead of publishing the results in late November, the COTY Organizing Committee reached an agreement with the organizers of the Geneva Auto Salon to disclose the winner in Palexpo each Monday prior to the first press day, at 15:00.

Last year’s winner was the Nissan Leaf EV. You can check out the 35 candidates for the 2012 COTY in the list below, and tell us which car you think has the most chances to win the award in the comments section.

Car of the Year Nominees:

Audi A6Audi Q3BMW 1-SeriesBMW 6-SeriesChevrolet AveoChevrolet OrlandoCitroen DS4Citroen DS5Fiat PandaFord FocusHonda CivicHyundai i40Hyundai VelosterKia PicantoKia RioLancia YpsilonLexus GSMazda CX-5Mercedes-Benz B-ClassMercedes-Benz ML-ClassMercedes-Benz SLK-ClassOpel Ampera/Chevrolet VoltOpel Zafira TourerPeugeot 508Peugeot 3008 HYbrid4Porsche 911Ranger Rover EvoqueRenault Kangoo Z.E.Renault Fluence Z.E.Ssangyong KorandoToyota Verso S/Subaru TreziaToyota YarisVolkswagen BeetleVolkswagen JettaVolkswagen up!