What Is the Car of the Year 2022?

Updated: Jan 19, 2022

2022 has begun. So it's time again to vote for the Swiss Car of the Year. Like every year, various newspapers and members of the Swiss automotive industry came together to select the car of the year 2022. Thanks to a jury of experts and a public election, several models emerged from the pack. In this article, we present the results of the vote and our selection.

Carequest Sàrl car broker Switzerland, Ferrari 296 GTB

The title of Swiss Car of the Year is more symbolic than anything else. Yet it is a good marketing tool and a way of gauging public interest. Below, you will learn about the selection process and the latest results.

Voting process

While we talk about the election of the car of the year, there are actually two cars. The first is elected by a representative group of the Swiss population. This is the favourite car of the Swiss population. An expert jury selects the second. Also, the vote is based on the cars presented or marketed in 2021.

The Swiss' favourite car

The public vote aims to select the Swiss population' favourite car. The sample population consists of AutoScout24 users as well as readers of Schweizer Illustrierte, BLICK, SonntagsBlick, L'Illustré and Corriere del Ticino. A total of 30,000 votes were cast for the 55 vehicles in the competition.

The Swiss car of the year

For the Swiss Car of the Year category, 14 experts deliberated. The professional jury consisted mainly of automotive journalists and several personalities, such as the racing driver Nico Müller and the former F1 driver Marc Surer.

Results

This year, the choices were heavily oriented towards electric vehicles. This is partly due to current trends that have pushed manufacturers to electrify their fleets. 2021 was marked by the arrival on the market of many new battery-powered models.

The Swiss' favourite car

The results of the Swiss population remained in line with the sales statistics. Indeed, Škoda, and in particular its Octavia, has been among the leaders in terms of units sold in Switzerland for many years. It is, therefore, no surprise that the Škoda Enyaq iV, the first 100% electric model from the Czech manufacturer, took the highest step on the podium with 3.6% of the votes. In second place was the Audi Q4 e-tron, a vehicle that shares many components and features with the Enyaq iV. The German brand is also very popular with the Swiss, thanks in particular to its renowned Quattro system. Finally, the Peugeot 308 completes the ranking with 2.6% of the votes. The French car is the only one in the selection to be available with combustion engines.

The Swiss car of the year

All contenders had in common their battery-electric powertrain. In contrast to previous years, not ten models made it to the final, but 25. A reason for it was the very close scores in the pre-selection. In the end, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 won with 15% of the jury's votes. This victory is due in particular to the important role that this model plays in popularising electric cars among the Swiss population. In second place is the Renault Megane E-Tech Electric with 12% of the votes. Finally, the Kia EV6 completes the podium with 10% of the ballots. It is important to note that this model shares the same technical base as the victorious Hyundai.

Which cars would we have chosen?

If you were to ask us about our selection, it would probably be more emotional. At Carequest, we are very passionate about cars. The emotions and sensations that the vehicle provides are therefore very important.

After some hesitations, we managed to decide on a few models that particularly interested us in 2021 and that we are looking forward to seeing or testing in 2022.