The Car of the Year shortlist features more EVs than ever

The Car of the Year shortlist is out, and the big news is a Tesla vs Taycan fight nestled among a bunch of smaller, largely petrol-powered hatchbacks.

Yep, the European award is more switched onto electrification than ever. The Jaguar I-Pace, Vauxhall Ampera and Nissan Leaf are among previous CotY winners, but 2020 is the first year that more than one plug-in car is among the finalists, with three on this year’s seven-strong list.

The Tesla Model 3 and Porsche Taycan are the headline nominees, and you’d suspect they’re in with a decent shout of winning, especially given the former’s stocky sales figures upon its arrival in Europe.

Your other EV contender is the Peugeot 208. While its whole range is nominated for the award, it does launch immediately with a fully electric e-208 version, which you'd imagine helped it into the final seven.

There are plenty of other, more conventional cars to beat, not least the new Toyota Corolla, a car which sells in biggest numbers as a hybrid. Completing the shortlist are the newly front-driven BMW 1 Series, the newly crossover-y Ford Puma and the newly techy Renault Clio.

Click through pics of them all above, then tell us which one you reckon should win.