CAR OF THE YEAR 2021
This is the Car of the Year 2021!
Cars
| 01-03-2021
The Toyota Yaris is the European Car of the Year 2021. That was announced earlier today via a livestream from Geneva. How did the other six nominees fare? And does that somewhat match my prediction from yesterday?
The jury awarded a total of 266 points to the Toyota Yaris, which won that model the Car of the Year 2021 title. The full final list looks like this:
My predictions
Based on some statistics I came to the following top 7 yesterday:
Still, I didn't think this was going to be the result. My guess was that the final list would be closer to the following:
The Yaris did better than I indicated based on the statistics, and my own estimate was even further off. My winner, the 500, has just missed the highest podium. In many countries, the infrastructure for electric cars is still very limited, which means a hybrid Yaris is of more use than a fully electric 500. My view was perhaps a bit too Dutch there. Two of the three Dutch judges also gave the most points to the 500.
I also think the third place for the Cupra Formentor is a great surprise. Cupra is of course a new brand and has therefore not been able to win before; that will have affected my list based on the statistics. In addition, many jury members seem to prefer a sporty SUV with the possibility of a plug-in hybrid powertrain to a fully electric car like the ID.3. The Beetle and Golf of the 21st century only gets to fourth place (which is still quite an achievement, of course, out of the 28 cars that were initially nominated.)
What surprises me most about the result, is the low score of the C4, which only got 143 points. It seems that the winning of the 208 last year – same concern, shared technology – has played tricks on the French.
The number of points each model has received is interesting if you want to compare the winner with the other nominees of the same year, but when you look over the longer term, those points don't say much. This is because the number of jury members varies per year, and thus also the maximum number of points that can be obtained. Moreover, the points system has been adjusted a few times since the first presentation. In order to make a good comparison, you should therefore not look at the points, but at the percentage of the maximum number of points that can be achieved per year. That produces a completely different list than when you only look at the points. Soon I will start on this site and on my Instagram accounts @robertdouw and @robertdouw_cars the weekly Car of the Year Top 50 series. The Car of the Year 2021 is not listed there. Are you also curious about which fifty cars did score best in the most important European car election? Then keep an eye on my site and Instagram!
The Car of the Year 2021
The winnerThe jury awarded a total of 266 points to the Toyota Yaris, which won that model the Car of the Year 2021 title. The full final list looks like this:
- 1. Toyota Yaris (266 points)
- 2. Fiat 500 (240 points)
- 3. Cupra Formentor (239 points)
- 4. Volkswagen ID.3 (224 points)
- 5. Škoda Octavia (199 points)
- 6. Land Rover Defender (164 points)
- 7. Citroën C4 (143 points)
My predictions
Based on some statistics I came to the following top 7 yesterday:
- 1. Fiat 500
- 2. Volkswagen ID.3
- 3. Toyota Yaris
- 4. Škoda Octavia
- 5. Citroën C4
- 6. Cupra Formentor
- 7. Land Rover Defender
Still, I didn't think this was going to be the result. My guess was that the final list would be closer to the following:
- 1. Fiat 500
- 2. Citroën C4
- 3. Volkswagen ID.3
- 4. Land Rover Defender
- 5. Toyota Yaris
- 6. Cupra Formentor
- 7. Škoda Octavia
The Yaris did better than I indicated based on the statistics, and my own estimate was even further off. My winner, the 500, has just missed the highest podium. In many countries, the infrastructure for electric cars is still very limited, which means a hybrid Yaris is of more use than a fully electric 500. My view was perhaps a bit too Dutch there. Two of the three Dutch judges also gave the most points to the 500.
I also think the third place for the Cupra Formentor is a great surprise. Cupra is of course a new brand and has therefore not been able to win before; that will have affected my list based on the statistics. In addition, many jury members seem to prefer a sporty SUV with the possibility of a plug-in hybrid powertrain to a fully electric car like the ID.3. The Beetle and Golf of the 21st century only gets to fourth place (which is still quite an achievement, of course, out of the 28 cars that were initially nominated.)
What surprises me most about the result, is the low score of the C4, which only got 143 points. It seems that the winning of the 208 last year – same concern, shared technology – has played tricks on the French.
The cars with the most votes per country.
Yaris not in the Top 50The number of points each model has received is interesting if you want to compare the winner with the other nominees of the same year, but when you look over the longer term, those points don't say much. This is because the number of jury members varies per year, and thus also the maximum number of points that can be obtained. Moreover, the points system has been adjusted a few times since the first presentation. In order to make a good comparison, you should therefore not look at the points, but at the percentage of the maximum number of points that can be achieved per year. That produces a completely different list than when you only look at the points. Soon I will start on this site and on my Instagram accounts @robertdouw and @robertdouw_cars the weekly Car of the Year Top 50 series. The Car of the Year 2021 is not listed there. Are you also curious about which fifty cars did score best in the most important European car election? Then keep an eye on my site and Instagram!
Sources
I have compiled the images from images from the site of Car of the Year. That's also where the information about the results of the Car of the Year 2021 election comes from. The map on the bottom image is from Google Maps.