The 2026 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicles of the Year were crowned Wednesday, Jan. 14, to kick off the Detroit Auto Show at Huntington Place downtown. The winners: Car of the Year: 2025 Dodge ChargerTruck of the Year: 2025 Ford Maverick LoboUtility of the Year: 2025 Hyundai Palisade The awards, among the most prestigious prizes in the automotive industry, are decided by a panel of 50 automotive journalists from the United States and Canada from the Automotive Press Association. To be considered for a NACTOY award, a vehicle must be either all new or substantially redesigned. The 50-member panel test drives all of the vehicles, whittling a list of dozens of qualifying vehicles down to semifinalists, before naming the finalists from which the winners are chosen. The awards presentation took place first thing in the morning of media day at the Detroit Auto Show. Dozens of automotive journalists, executives, designers and photographers gathered around the Auto Show stage as the panel presented the winners of the three awards. Attendees in the crowd included several CEOs and executives of automotive brands up for the awards. These vehicles took home top honors in their respective categories: Car of the Year: Dodge Charger A Dodge Charger Sixpack Scat Pack performs in a burnout ahead of Roadkill Nights Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Pontiac. The eighth generation of the iconic muscle car had flummoxed some, as it initially debuted with an extremely quick all-electric powertrain in the Dodge Charger Daytona. During 2025, Dodge debuted an internal combustion engine-powered Charger, offering standard and high-output versions. And Dodge brought a lot of power to the high-output SIXPACK Charger through its turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine that can put out 550 horsepower and go from 0-60 in less than four seconds. Matt McAlear, the CEO of Dodge, told reporters after he won the award that he was really proud of the victory, noting that the Charger is pushing the boundaries of what a muscle car can be with a six-cylinder engine and a hatchback. "It changes the perception of what performance is," McAlear said with the chrome NACTOY award in hand as he stood near a Charger on the auto show floor. "We're excited to get people behind the wheel so they can see how much fun this vehicle is to drive." The Charger won 195 points in the NACTOY voting system, besting the new Honda Prelude (152 points) and the refreshed Nissan Sentra (143 points). Truck of the Year: Ford Maverick Lobo 2025 Ford Maverick Lobo. The Ford Maverick Lobo — Ford Motor Co.'s tuned-up and dropped-down street truck — is a sporty, lowered truck inspired by the street truck culture known for lowering pickups, tuning up the engines for racing and drifting. Pam Wylie, Ford's vehicle program director, accepted the award and said she was glad that the truck — much smaller than its competitors in size and a part of a niche segment of trucks — was received warmly by the judges. "That's exactly what we were hoping for," Wylie said of the victory. "Our design team is incredible ... along with out vehicle engineering teams, working hand in hand to really come up with a product that our customers are excited about." The Lobo ran away with the vote, taking home 277 points. The revived Ram 1500 HEMI earned 114 points, with the Ram 2500 getting 99. Utility Vehicle of the Year: Hyundai Palisade The 2026 Hyundai Palisade has a long hood and well-defined fender flares. For the most popular vehicle segment in the country, the Hyundai Palisade took home top honors, beating out the Lucid Gravity and the Nissan Leaf. The Palisade is Hyundai's flagship SUV and underwent a refresh for the 2026 model year that was good enough for it to take home the victory. Olabisi Boyle, Hyundai's senior vice president of product planning and mobility, said the Palisade was recognized for its improvements in style, size and power — all core issues the design teams at Hyundai tried to address with the refresh. "This team is going to be so proud," Boyle said. "We started this journey a couple of years ago on the design side, the engineering side, the technology side. We said, 'What do customers want?' " The Palisade also won by a large margin, earning 270 points. The Nissan Leaf earned 135, while the Lucid Gravity eked out 85 points. (This story was updated to add a video.)