The Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) 2026 winners were announced at a stylish and fun-filled award ceremony in Delhi on December 18, 2025.  The big winners were the Maruti Suzuki Victoris, which won the prestigious and highly coveted Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) Award. The packed with technology and quite radical Mahindra XEV 9E became the Green Car of the Year by ICOTY, and the deceptively fast and fun to drive Volkswagen Golf GTI, was declared the Premium Car of the Year by ICOTY.

In the ICOTY Jury Round the Maruti Suzuki Victoris won by scoring 144 points and the runner up was the Skoda Kylaq with 90 points. The Mahindra XEV 9E with 71 points was third. Interestingly, of the 8 finalists or shortlisted vehicles for ICOTY this time, 4 were EVs and 1 hybrid! Yes, only 3 IC or internal combustion engine powered cars – The Times They Are A-Changin’. And it’s the hybrid Victoris that won. Given this, I don’t think the day is far when an EV becomes the Indian Car of The Year.

In the Green Car by ICOTY award, the Mahindra XEV 9E with 135 points was the clear winner and the Kia Carens Clavis EV with 90 points was second and the BMW iX1 with 71 points finished third.

The Premium Car of the Year by ICOTY was won by the Volkswagen Golf GTI (123 points), followed by the Toyota Camry (94 points) and BMW iX1 (58 points) in third place

As always, some of the senior-most and highly-experienced journalists from top Indian automotive publications and online media were part of the Jury of the ICOTY, which has emerged as the most honest and desired auto awards and is now considered the ‘Oscar’ of Indian automotive awards.

This award is an expert and independent judgment of the best new car and the award has been getting increasingly prominent with each passing year. JK Tyre has been sponsoring the award ceremony of the ICOTY ever since its inception and this year too, it was Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. who graced the occasion and gave away the awards, along with the members of the ICOTY 2026 Jury.

The ICOTY 2026 Jury included Dhruv Behl and Ishan Raghava of autoX, Yogendra Pratap and Dipayan Dutta from Auto Today, Aspi Bhathena and Gaurav Davare Car India, Sirish Chandran and Aatish Mishra Evo India, Pablo Chaterji and Kartik Ware Motoring World, Kranti Sambhav and Rohit Paradkar Overdrive, Vikrant Singh and Sagar Bhanushali Carwale, Abhay Verma Turbocharged, Arpit Mahendra from TOI Auto, Tushar Kamath from Cardekho, Kushan-Mitra of The Print and yours truly- Bob Rupani the man happiest behind the wheel.

This specialist 19 member jury consisting of some very knowledgeable and experienced Indian automotive journalists is easily the best in the business, and cumulatively they have over 300 years of car evaluation expertise. The jury is known for their analytical skills and competence in evaluating and testing cars, as a part of their profession.

The highly experienced jury members are responsible for selecting the winners and the voting process has been designed to be very fair and unbiased and tamper proof. Thanks to all this, the ICOTY trophy and certificate is the one every manufacturer wants to win. The ICOTY award is in line with international standards and modeled on the American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year and Japanese Car of the Year.

The eligible vehicles are judged on various parameters such as price, fuel efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, features, performance, practicality, technical innovation, value for money and above all suitability for Indian consumers and driving conditions.

On a personal note, as one of the founders of ICOTY and someone who has written most of its constitution and also served it as Chairman for many terms in its formative years, I am delighted that in the last 21 years this auto award has grown to become the gold standard in car awards. A big thank you to the Indian automobile industry for continuing to give this exceptional award the respect it deserves. Especially in present times, where everything revolves around views and followers, and we have hundreds (maybe thousands) wannabe car reviewers and analysts screaming and gesturing away into their phones and trying to influence people with their (in my opinion) not quite educated views.

So let’s raise a toast to all the winners, ICOTY Jury members, and of course our longstanding sponsors JK Tyre. Jai Ho, Vijay Ho.