The Škoda Superb has been voted the Slovenian Car of the Year for 2025, pipping the Dacia Duster, Peugeot 3008, Citroen C3, and the Renault Symbioz to the title in what was the first time since 2017 that only European car makes made the shortlist.

The winner was declared at the final event at the Park of Military History in Pivka on 15 January.

This was after nine media outlets that report about the automotive industry and cars nominated their five favourites and the top five made the final where their readers, listeners and viewers cast their vote. Almost 33,000 votes were cast.

Based on the votes and the scores of the journalists of the participating media, the Škoda Superb scored 50 points. The Dacia Duster collected 40 points, the Peugeot 3008 26, the Citroen C3 24 and the Renault Symbioz got 20.

Fourth title for Škoda

This is Škoda's first Slovenian Car of the Year title since 2021, when the Škoda Octavia claimed the honour. The brand previously won in 2014 and 2015 with the Octavia and Fabia, respectively.

One of the media participating in the selection, RTV Slovenija, described the Škoda Superb as a "great roomy family car, a superb tourer, and a quiet business car that outperforms most SUVs and is getting us used to a greener future in a relatively painless way".

They noted the 100-kilometre electric range of the plug-in hybrid version that affords daily electric commutes and long journeys without a hitch, as well as the highly efficient petrol mild-hybrid engine and the still very economical diesel version for those travelling longer distances.

This was the 33rd edition of the Slovenian Car of the Year, the first one in 1993 being won by the BMW 3 coupe. Last year, the winner was the Renault Austral, while Volkswagen has won the most titles so far, nine, the last one in 2018.

Car sales up in 2024 as demand for EVs plummets

Data from the Chamber of Commerce (TZS) shows that 53,018 new cars were registered for the first time in Slovenia in 2024, up 8.4% compared with the year before.

The data suggests that sales of electric cars plummeted by 27% to 9,876 with the number of newly registered fully electric vehicles dropping by 38% to 3,142.

Volkswagen was the top selling brand with a market share of nearly 15%, followed by Renault (11.2%) and Škoda (10.5%). The top selling EV was Tesla's model 3 (446).