This year’s North American Car of the Year award winner announced

The Dodge Charger received the 2026 North American Automotive of the Yr award, whereas the Ford Maverick Lobo took the crown within the truck awards and the Hyundai Palisade received the utility award.

The awards had been introduced Wednesday morning throughout an Automotive Press Affiliation occasion in the beginning of the North American Worldwide Auto Present in Detroit.

Automakers tout the awards, that are given by a bunch of journalists from the US and Canada who assess components equivalent to automobile innovation, design, efficiency, driver satisfaction and extra of their selections.

The awards are thought-about an necessary measure of how the media perceives automakers’ new and redesigned automobiles, and patrons usually use them when choosing automobiles for buy.

Along with the successful midsize automotive Dodge Charger, automotive finalists included the Honda Prelude hybrid sports activities coupe and the Nissan Sentra compact automotive.

This yr’s truck finalists included the Ram 1500 Hemi along with the Ram 2500.

The opposite utility finalists had been the Lucid Gravity luxurious electrical automotive and the Nissan Leaf small electrical crossover SUV.

This yr’s finalists represented a mixture of combustion engines, hybrid and electrical automobiles.