After a long and meticulous process of testing and jury evaluation, it was the Maruti Suzuki Victoris that came out on top as the Indian Car Of The Year 2026
The ICOTY awards is that time of the year where some of the senior-most and highly-experienced journalists from top India automotive publications and online portals, come together to decide the standout machines from this year through a meticulous process of jury members driving and debating over which car would win one of the highest coveted honours in the industry. Presented by JK Tyre, ICOTY 2026 had a slew of contenders from diverse fields, and this time, it was the Maruti Suzuki Victoris that won the 2026 edition of the Indian Car Of The Year award.
The shortlisted finalists included the Hyundai Creta Electric, the Hyundai Venue, the Kia Carens Clavis EV, the Kia Syros, the Mahindra XEV 9e, the Skoda Kylaq, as well as the Tata Harrier.ev. The Victoris with its fine balance of features, design and the all-rounder appeal came out on top at 144 points, with the Skoda Kylaq in second place at 90 points, and the Mahindra XEV 9e, finished third at 71 points.
Moving on to the Green Car Award 2026, it was the Mahindra XEV 9e that triumphed, against a pretty diverse list of shortlisted finalists that included the BMW iX1 LWB, BYD Sealion 7, Hyundai Creta Electric, Kia Carens Clavis EV, MG Cyberster, Tata Harrier.ev, and the Tesla Model Y. The Mahindra XEV 9e’s win marks a strong statement in electric mobility for India, scoring 135 points, against the Kia Carens Clavis EV that scored 90 points, with the BMW iX1 LWB third at 78 points.
The Volkswagen Golf GTI proved that it’s more than just a legendary nameplate as it also brings with it driver-focused hot hatch thrills, which was enough to win the Premium Car Award 2026. The shortlisted finalists were plenty, which included the likes of the BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz G-Class, MG Cyberster, Skoda Kodiaq, Skoda Octavia RS, and the Toyota Camry. At 123 points, the Golf GTI finished ahead of the Toyota Camry that scored 94 points, with the BMW iX1 LWB ranking third at 58 points.
The evaluation process for ICOTY 2026 had cars being evaluated on criteria, such as price, fuel-efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, performance, practicality, technological innovation, value for money, and suitability for Indian driving conditions. Since the journey began over 20 years ago, Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of JK Tyre and Industries Ltd and the company, JK Tyres themselves have been staunch supporters of ICOTY and their assistance has played a key role to help ICOTY achieve their legitimacy and credibility it has today.
The list of the Jury members for ICOTY 2026 includes our very own Aspi Bhathena (Editor, Car India) and Gaurav Davare (Correspondent, Car India) as well as Dhruv Behl and Ishan Raghava of autoX. The jury members also included Yogendra Pratap and Dipayan Dutta from Auto Today, Sirish Chandran and Aatish Mishra of Evo India, Pablo Chaterji and Kartik Ware from Motoring World, Kranti Sambhav and Rohit Paradkar of Overdrive, Vikrant Singh and Sagar Bhanishali for CarWale, Arpit Mahendra for Times Auto, Tushar Kamath of Cardekho.com/Zigwheels, Kushan-Mitra of The Print, Abhay Verma of Turbocharged and Bob Rupani representing Exploration Drives with Bob Rupani.
Alongside, ICOTY, we also had the Indian Motorcycle Of The Year Award, with the title going to the TVS Apache RTX.
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