Which is the best car of 2020?

A battle-scarred year is drawing to a close and, pandemic or not, it is time to honour the best cars of 2020.

Because of business suspension during the two-month circuit breaker, there are fewer contenders for The Straits Times Car of the Year 2020.

Just over 30 new models were launched here, compared with the usual 50 or so. Hence, the shortlist has eight instead of the usual 10 cars.

As a sign of the times, three of them are electric models. The rest are crossovers and sport utility vehicles.

There are three newcomer brands - Land Rover, Mini and Nissan - none of which made it to the shortlist before.

The panel of judges, comprising motoring writers who have contributed to ST Motoring for up to three decades, remains largely unchanged.

They sifted through the new models that were launched in the 12-month period starting from mid-November last year.

Only cars brought in by authorised agents were considered.

To remain relevant to as many readers as possible, cars priced above $750,000 were not considered.

The costliest nominee is the Porsche Taycan 4S, which is going for about half a million dollars. The least-expensive is the Hyundai Avante, which starts at about $90,000.

The judges are still going through the cars in the line-up and comparing each with its peers to decide how they score on various traits. The winner will be unveiled on Dec 19.

Here are this year's contenders.

The Straits Times is inviting readers to pick a car from the list here which they think should be crowned ST Car of the Year 2020.

The online poll closes at noon on Dec 12 and the results will be published on Dec 19.

To vote, go to poll.fm/10671022.