The selection for the Slovenian Car of the Year is a special event every year, a kind of Slovenian Oscar, except that the audience is smaller and the catering is more homely. When I looked at the list of five finalists for 2026 – Audi A5, Dacia Bigster, Hyundai Inster, KIA EV3 and Renault 5 – I asked myself: Is this really the pinnacle of engineering or have we simply become dangerously undemanding? Here is an analysis without any fluff. I have scoured the dark corners of the internet, checked the facts and I will be completely direct. This is a record that importers may not print and frame, but you must read it. So - Slovenian Car of the Year 2026.
Electric mobility
If you think car designers are just quiet artists in black suits drawing lines in the basement, you're wrong. At least not in the case of Gorden Wagener. He was a rock star. The man who took Mercedes' hat off and put on its sunglasses. But on January 31, 2026, that era is coming to an end. After 28 years and countless scratches on the clay (and probably on the egos of his competitors), Gorden Wagener is leaving Stuttgart.
Jaguar has done everything it can to make us hate it in recent months. With strange logos, advertising campaigns that look like a fashion show for aliens, and a promise not to "copy anything." But before we write off this British icon as a victim of its own marketing, let's pause. Underneath all that "woke" glitz, there's a monster. A three-engine monster that will tear up the asphalt faster than the Internet can tear up the nerves of purists. It's the Jaguar Type 00.
My dear petrol romantics, manual transmission lovers and those who still claim that "electronics in a car just die" - I have bad news. While you were still debating in 2025 whether diesel has a future (spoiler: it doesn't), the world moved forward. And not just moved - it jumped. Reports coming out of the US about the latest Tesla FSD v14 (Supervised) update are not just technical news. They are an obituary of driving as we knew it. And if you think I'm exaggerating, you're probably still using a Nokia 3310.
Volkswagen is like that friend who is always late to a party. Everyone is already there – Tesla dancing on the table, the Chinese have already eaten all the chips, the French are flirting with the waitress. And then, when everyone is a little tired, VW enters. A little out of breath, with a shirt that is not completely ironed, but it brings with it the best beer and homemade sausage. The VW ID. Polo is exactly that. It missed the start of the electric revolution in the toddler segment, but now that it is here, it looks like it will take over the whole show.
At first glance, this is the kind of car your grandmother would drive to church on Sunday. It looks cute, nostalgic, and completely harmless in its Marathon Blue paint. But when the driver steps on the pedal, there's no such thing as the characteristic roar of an air-cooled boxer engine. There's silence, smoke from under the tires, and acceleration that should be illegal.
While critics write obituaries, Tesla is making profits that its competitors can only dream of without advertising and with a "toxic" boss. If the headlines of business newspapers in 2025 were written solely by the editors' feelings, you would probably think that Elon Musk is currently begging for change on the corner of a factory in Berlin, while the CEOs of Volkswagen and BYD drive by in golden carriages. The narrative is clear: "Tesla is old, Tesla is stagnant, Tesla is finished." But Tesla 2025 is officially the biggest miracle in the automotive industry 2025.
Let's be honest. The automotive industry has become a bit... depressed in recent years. All the manufacturers are competing to make the angriest, heaviest, most expensive electric behemoth that takes up as much space on the road as a small studio apartment. And then there's Citroën. The brand that is apparently the only one that still drinks real wine during lunch breaks. They've introduced the Citroën ELO. It's not a car. It's a mobile living room that devoured a McLaren F1 and decided to live in a Decathlon. And you know what? It's absolutely fantastic.
In the name of aerodynamics and range, all-electric SUVs have started to resemble bars of soap that you left in the bathtub for too long. And just when we thought BMW had scooped up all the cream with the new iX3 Neue Klasse (which was unveiled just a month earlier!), Mercedes threw a brick at the table. But what a brick! The new Mercedes-Benz GLB is square, proud, and looks like a scaled-down GLS that just came out of the gym. It's a car for those who want electric but don't want to look like they're driving a space capsule. And to be honest, with its new platform and crazy specs, it threatens to steal the Bavarians' lunch before they can even unwrap it.
In 2026, buying a car is no longer a question of emotions, the smell of gasoline, or the roar of the exhaust pipe. It has become a question of an IQ test and the ability to use a calculator. If you are buying as a company, you are crazy if you do not buy electricity. If you are buying as an individual and live in a house, insisting on gasoline is the same as burning banknotes to heat your neighbor's apartment.
Volkswagen is at a turning point. After several years of searching for an identity in the electric age, criticism of the software and ergonomic slippages in the interior, it seems that the German giant is returning to what it has always done best: making cars for people. In sunny Portugal, the Volkswagen ID. Cross 2026 concept was revealed to selected eyes – a car that promises to correct the mistakes of the past.
Everyone is shouting about a revolution. YouTubers are swooning over the charging curves. But let's be honest - when you walk up to this car in person, when you actually see it without studio lights and filters, something unexpected happens. Nothing. Your heart rate stays steady. Instead of being overwhelmed by a sense of German dominance, you are overwhelmed by a strange "déjà vu". Doesn't it all seem a bit too... Peugeot? The BMW iX3 Neue Klasse is a monster on paper, but in reality it may just be proof that "premium" is no longer what it used to be.










