The official 2015 Car of the Year candidates have been named for the global award. A total of31 cars have been named on the provisional list which, again will be narrowed down by the end of the year. The final list will be issued on 1st December 2014.

All the candidates have to benew vehicleson sale now or before 2014’s end in five or more European markets. Each candidate should have the prospect of selling at least 5000 units a year.

The voting process has two stages. The first one will produce a short list of seven nominees, which will be announced on15th December 2014. The second round will determine the singlewinnerthat will be revealed on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show on the2nd March 2015.

Last year’s Car of the Year winnerwas the Peugeot 308. The Peugeot received 307 points from the 58 Jury members, with top points from 22 jurors. Second and third, in a close race, were the two electric cars, BMW i3 (223 points) and Tesla S (216). In the group of seven Nominees, were also the Citroën C4 Picasso (182), Mazda3 (180), Skoda Octavia (172) and Mercedes S-class (170).

Whilst many of these candidates aren’t available in SA, it’s good to see what other vehicles are considered ‘highly recommended’ by our European counterparts.

Car of the Year Candidates:

Audi TT Coupe

BMW 2-Series Active Tourer

BMW 2-Series Coupe

BMW i8

BMW X4

Citroen C1

Citroen C4 Cactus

Fiat 500X

Ford EcoSport

Ford Mondeo

Hyundai i20

Infiniti Q50

Jeep Renegade

Kia Soul

Lexus NX

Lexus RC

Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Mercedes-Benz GLA

Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe

Nissan Pulsar

Nissan Qashqai

Nissan X-Trail

Opel Corsa

Peugeot 108

Porsche Macan

Renault Twingo

Skoda Fabia

Smart ForTwo

Smart ForFour

Subaru WRX STI

Suzuki Celerio

Toyota Aygo

Volkswagen Passat