The ABC Best Car of the Year Awards 2025 will be in its 54th year. Sponsored by Michelin, this prestigious award has been awarded annually since 1973 to recognize vehicles for their character, acceptance and reference among automotive experts. … The automotive industry and the general public and their level of innovation. The winning model will be the one with the highest score after a voting process that includes both expert judges and ABC readers.
The expert jury is composed of representatives of both the most important media in Spain (leaders of its territory and areas of influence) and specialized media, covering print, digital and television media. The members will be selected at the invitation of ABC, and each media will nominate and vote for a representative from among the 12 selected models.
Twelve candidates were announced last Wednesday at the “Party of the Chosen” on November 12, where representatives of the nominated brands defended the quality of their respective models. Demonstrating the growing presence of electric cars and electric models manufactured in Europe and Asia, the shortlist includes BYD Drupikhin Surf, Citroen C5 Aircross, Dacia Bigster, Ebro s400, Fiat Grande Panda, Hyundai Instar, Kia EV3, Leapmotor C10, Lexus RZ, Opel Frontera, Renault 4 and Skoda Elrok.
From 9am on Thursday, November 13th, ABC activated the website «mejorcoche.abc.es«. On this page you will find, until midnight on Friday, December 5, 2025, the rules of the award, the list of nominees, the technical characteristics of the models, the composition of the professional jury and the voting system for the non-professional jury (readers and subscribers of ABC Newspapers).
Voting and jury system
The jury is divided into two groups: a professional jury and a non-professional jury, the latter consisting of ABC Premium subscribers and registered users of the ABC website. The winning car will be determined based on a combination of votes as follows: Votes of professional judges carry 70% weight on the final result, subscribers contribute 25% and registered users contribute 5%.
Reader voting is governed by specific rules. Each registered user may vote once per day during the specified period. ABC Premium subscribers may only cast one vote for the entire competition, according to the rules detailed on the website.
Regarding the specialized jury, each member must send their vote by email to the Madrid notary, Mr. Miguel Mestanza Iturmendi, within a specified period. The evaluation of each model is based on parameters such as design, engine, behavior, interior, power consumption and quality-price ratio. The scores assigned must follow descending order, with the best car receiving 13 points and the next cars receiving 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 points respectively.
professional vote
It is important to note that expert judges cannot give the same model the highest (13) or lowest (1) score for all parameters. In this sense, you can only assign the highest or lowest score to the same model for up to four parameters, understanding that a vehicle cannot be the highest (or lowest) in every category in which it is evaluated.
If the notary determines that a juror has not followed the scoring criteria, the juror will be notified so that he or she can correct their vote within a set period of time. If there is no correction, the vote will be permanently deleted and will not be considered in the final tally.
Similarly, ABC reserves the right to remove a juror for cause if it determines that the juror has voted unethically. If there is a tie in the voting results of the expert judges, priority will be given to the branded vehicle with the highest score (13 points). In case of a tie, the 11 points with the highest number of votes will be considered. Additionally, if a juror submits multiple votes, only the last vote received will be considered.
Results and awards
Finally, the Notary will record the voting results on Wednesday, December 10th and award a prize to a single model. The ABC Awards Best Car of the Year is unique and final, consisting of an honorable mention and a symbolic physical award, with no monetary reward attached. Afterwards, an awards ceremony will be held.
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