Female car experts named the best car of 2026

The jury of the Women's Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCOTY) competition, which consists of 86 female automotive journalists from 55 countries, announced the winner of the 2026 competition. It became the Nissan Leaf electric car, which was ahead of five other models in the final vote.

The women's jury explained the choice of the winner by saying that the Nissan Leaf is a balanced, affordable, comfortable, spacious and practical car for everyday use, and its battery is enough for both city trips and travel.

"The Nissan Leaf represents a mature and meaningful vision for electrification — a vision that makes electric mobility truly convenient and affordable," said Marta Garcia, Executive President of the competition.

The Nissan Leaf reached the final of the competition, being recognized by WWCOTY as the best in the compact car segment earlier this year. Among compact crossovers, the first place then went to the Skoda Elroq. The Mercedes-Benz CLA was named the significant novelty of the year, the Hyundai Ioniq 9 won the title of the best large crossover, and the Toyota 4Runner was announced as the car of the year among SUVs. Among the supercars and exotic ones, the Lamborghini Temerario became the winner. The list includes only electrified models.

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Earlier, on February 20, the Moskvich plant launched the production of new EVM electric and hybrid cars under the UMO brand. Yandex became the technological partner of the project.

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