Tesla joins Skoda, BMW and Mercedes as a finalist for Car of the Year 2014

The seven-car shortlist for the 2014 Car of the Year in Europe is out, and features an eclectic mix, from electric city cars, family saloons and people carriers right through to luxury premium models. Taken from a longlist of 30 candidates, the seven finalists are: BMW i3, Citroën C4 Picasso, Mazda3, Mercedes S-Class, Peugeot 308, Skoda Octavia and Tesla Model S. (You can read our previous test drive reports on each of the seven finalists).

After several test sessions with the longlist of vehicles and their various derivatives, the seven finalists will go through further testing, particularly a special track day test at the CERAM test centre in Mortefontaine outside Paris. The private facility is used by car firms to test pre-production cars. After this the 58 jury members from 22 European countries will vote, and the announcement of the Car of the Year 2014 will be made on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show on March 3rd at 3pm. All the votes of the jury, and a synopsis of their opinions of the cars in question, will be published on the day.

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