- The Cadillac Lyriq EV has been named the best luxury car over €70,000 in Germany’s 2025 Car of The Year (GCOTY) competition.
- Every one of the four other category winners came from European brands.
- Judges now have to decide if the Lyriq deserves to beat the Citroen C3, BMW 5-Series, Audi Q6 e-tron, and Porsche 911 GTS T-Hybrid to take the overall win.
The Cadillac Lyriq’s electric drivetrain and sharp styling haven’t only won it new fans in America – it’s also earned the SUV a chance of victory in the prestigious German Car Of The Year (GCOTY) competition.
Forty judges assessing entries for GCOTY 2025 named the Lyriq the best luxury vehicle over €70,000 ($76,000), making it the only US car to be in with a shot at the overall title. The result will be announced on November 13 when the 2024 winner, VW’s ID.7 electric sedan will have to vacate its throne.
Related: Nearly Half Of The 2025 NACTOY Semifinalists Are EVs
But the Lyriq has its work cut out if it’s to take the outright win. The victors in the other four categories are the Citroen e-C3/C3, which took best compact vehicle under €35k ($38k), the BMW 5-Series/i5 which was awarded best premium car under €70k, the Audi Q6/SQ6 e-tron, GCOTY’s best new energy vehicle, and the Porsche 911 GTS T-Hybrid, which scooped best performance car.
You might have noticed that each one of those cars bar the Lyriq hails from Europe, and three are German. And maybe you’re not surprised by that, assuming that proud Germans might favor their own industry. But a glance at the list of previous winners shows that the judges are open-minded when it comes to new cars.
Though the ID.7 won in 2024, the MG3, Kia EV9, and Hyundai Ioniq 6 were victorious in the compact, luxury, and new energy categories, and the Genesis GV60, Range Rover, and Ferrari 296 won rounds in 2023, the year the VW ID.Buzz took home gold. The two overall winners in 2022 and 2021 were both from the Far East: Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Honda’s E.
The Lyric was shortlisted for the utility category in the 2023 North American Car and Truck of the Year (NACTOY) competition alongside the Genesis GV60 and Kia EV6 but lost out to the Kia in the final reckoning.
