The list of 12 Best Vehicles in Canada is created from detailed ballots completed by AJAC’s expert journalists. More than 600 ballots were submitted during the creation of the 12 Best list by 48 jurors based right across Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax. CCOTY is Canada’s ONLY vehicle awards scheme in which the jurors drive every vehicle they vote on. Vehicles are tested on the same roads and in the same conditions faced by Canadian drivers from coast to coast every day.
The list of 12 Best Vehicles in Canada for 2025 includes both newcomers and longstanding favourites among Canadian car buyers.
The Honda Civic, which won in 2022 and was the best-selling car in Canada in 2024, is joined in vying for Canadian Car of the Year with the Camry – another former winner – and the sporty Integra Type S.
In the Utility Vehicle category, the Santa Fe is another previous winner. The latest generation of the Hyundai family SUV is named on the 12 Best list alongside two other new utility vehicles: the Mazda CX-70 and the Toyota Land Cruiser.
With more all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles now available to Canadian consumers, competition is hotting up in the Electric Car and Electric Utility categories, too. The BMW i4 was a Canadian Car of the Year winner in 2023 and is named among the 12 Best with the Fiat 500e – Canada’s lowest-priced electric car – and the luxurious Lucid Air.
Meanwhile another high-performance model – the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – is one of three Electric Utilities recommended by the jurors, alongside the three-row Kia EV9 and the plug-in hybrid version of the Mazda CX-70. The Mazda is the only vehicle named on the 12 Best list in both its gas-only and electrified forms.
The 12 Best Vehicles in Canada for 2025 are as follows:
Canadian Car of the Year
Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year
Canadian Electric Car of the Year
Canadian Electric Utility Vehicle of the Year
Selected by an expert jury from the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC), these 12 excellent vehicles also go forward as the finalists in four categories for the 2025 Canadian Car of the Year Awards.