Top Gear’s 10 most important new cars of 2025

WHY:

It’s Italy’s 1,000PS answer to the Tesla Plaid and Taycan GT

THE BIG QUESTION:

Will it remain beautiful to look at, gorgeous to drive... and outrun jokes about Italian electrics?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Miss. The world’s getting fatigued with moltofast EV expresses. Three-quarters of 33 Stradale orders were for the V6, while the beautiful and stunningly delicate-to-drive previous petrol GTAm (pictured) casts a long shadow.

WHY:

The RS Quattro Avant story goes plug-in hybrid, with a 530bhp V6.

THE BIG QUESTION:

Hasn’t the blinding M3 Touring stolen Audi’s super-wagon thunder?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Hit! Standard S5 (pictured here) looks good, and the new RS5 has already been seen powersliding on the Ring. Yes, really. A sideways Audi!

And just look at the S5 again: the exhaust pipes are real this time…

WHY:

BMW reinvents itself (for the second time ever) for the electric age.

THE BIG QUESTION:

Designs look great (at last), but how will this bespoke EV attack soar where Mercedes EQ and VW I.D. crashed and burned? BMW needs to balance the old gripes of range and recharge times (to challenge Tesla and China) with a sense this is still an ultimate driving machine.

TG’s PREDICTION:

Hit! BMW design lingo is intelligible once more – and they’ve got history with very clever EVs (that, um, didn’t sell…)

Render: Andrei Avarvarii for Top Gear

WHY:

Purosangue? Pah! FF? Ffforget it. Simply the most controversial Prancing Horse ever.

THE BIG QUESTION:

What shape dare Ferrari make its first EV, and will buyers only go for it so they get on the V12 list? Our guess is a coupe-ish SUV in the rakish mould of the Lamborghini Lanzador. 

TG’s PREDICTION:

Hit! No brand knows its customers like Ferrari. They won’t shun their seat at the Icona table.

Render: Andrei Avarvarii for Top Gear

WHY:

Lower, lighter, 'wiser' and kickstarting a(nother) family of EVs. Honda needs a seat at the electric table before the buffet closes.

THE BIG QUESTION:

Has Honda given the Chinese and Koreans too much of a head start in the EV arms race?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Miss. Stated numbers already look a bit last week, and Honda seems to be benchmarking range and efficiency against its existing EVs... which suck. Hence the need for the big 0 Series reset in the first place.

WHY:

The most ambitious reinvention of a car brand ever. The end. (Of Jaguar?)

THE BIG QUESTION:

How exactly will Jaguar stick the landing from turbodiesel XE stockist to Bentley-esque atelier of pure EVs at a time when luxury buyers especially are shunning electrification, and sales of European deluxe marques are down in China?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Hit! Because it quite simply has to be, or Jaguar badges will be plastered onto meaningless Chinese e-crossovers by 2030.

WHY:

No pressure: just a successor to the LFA, with a motorsport-ready bi-turbo V8 heart.

THE BIG QUESTION:

A second chance for the F sub-brand, or a boulevardier for LA dentists?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Hit! Lexus is the Tottenham Hotspur of carmakers: consistently inconsistent. RCF and LC500 flopped, so they’re due a world-beater. Lexus Electrified Sport concept (pictured) shows a possible EV way forward, but we've seen an 'LFR' racecar mule testing hard on track and want a version with numberplates, stat.

WHY:

EQ has tanked (else why would Mercedes be slowly dropping that name, like on the new electric G-Wagen), while the hybrid C63 is a travesty. Mercedes badly needs a tech-led win.

THE BIG QUESTION:

Is a 1,000bhp EV hyper saloon the answer for Europe’s muscle car specialists?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Miss. Give us a production EQXX, not a(nother) massive techfest barge that fails to learn from the C63’s pie-gorging ways.

WHY:

The world’s best sports car goes electric only – just as the world cools on EV.

THE BIG QUESTION:

It’ll be excellent to drive and sit in, but how is Porsche going to make people want one?

TG’s PREDICTION:

Miss. Porsche’s engineering excellence isn't in doubt, but public perception isn't as predictable. With Porsche insisting the Boxster / Cayman twins will be EV only, could they engineer another petrol sports car to be sold alongside it? Time will tell.

Render: Andrei Avarvarii for Top Gear

WHY:

It's the big reset moment for Europe’s mass car giant, amid growing disquiet from the workers in its homeland over job losses and EV strategy.

THE BIG QUESTION:

Can VW actually distil its cosy common sense design into an electric Golf at the second attempt? 

TG’s PREDICTION:

Hit! They’re not going to make the same ID.Cock-Ups twice. VW now knows what we want is a Golf. Always have, always will. Say nein to haptic switches please. And remember the interior needs to light up at night so we know what we're pressing.