When the jurors of Europe’s Car of the Year award announced the provisional list of candidates back in July, BMW had no fewer than four models: 2 Series Coupe, 2 Series Active Tourer, i4, and iX. The original list included a total of 64 cars before the final list of candidates was published earlier this month. All four were among the 38 candidates, but after the first voting process, the shortened list looks dramatically different.

The compact minivan and coupe along with the electric four-door coupe and SUV have not made the cut as the list with the seven finalists for the 2022 Car of the Year award doesn’t have a single BMW in it. That’s a bit disappointing to see, especially in the case of the iX since we had high hopes the large, zero-emissions model would be among the finalists considering it’s the company’s most technologically advanced vehicle to date.

As for the models that have qualified for the second and final round of voting, the list includes two Volkswagen Group models taking the shape of the Cupra Born and Skoda Enyaq – both sharing the MEB platform. Up next are the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 riding on the E-GMP architecture, along with the Ford Mustang Mach-E also utilizing dedicated EV underpinnings.

The last two candidates are the Renault Megane e-Tech Electric (twinned with the Nissan Ariya on the CMF-EV platform) and the Peugeot 308. The latter comes with gasoline, diesel, and plug-in hybrid versions, with an EV to follow later in its life cycle. According to the rules, all the candidates should be new vehicles on sale now or before year’s end in five or more European markets

As you can see, it’s an electric-heavy list with two pairs of vehicles that share the same platforms. The finalists were chosen by 61 car journalists from 23 European countries. Early next year, all seven vehicles will be subjected to test drives. Each juror will hand out 25 points between the finalists, and the model with the most points will be announced as the winner on February 28.

Previous winners include the Toyota Yaris (2021), Peugeot 208 (2020), Jaguar I-Pace (2019), and the Volvo XC40 (2018).

[Source: Car of the Year]