The 10 Best Concept Cars of 2025

What better way for Toyota to celebrate spinning its Century nameplate off as its own ultra-luxury sub-brand than with an outlandish concept? The Century Coupe is unlike any other vehicle to bear its name over the last six decades, and that’s exactly what makes it so exciting. The high-riding grand tourer is big and brash—and surprisingly forward-thinking—just like the Rolls-Royce Spectre, and signals that the latest addition to Toyota’s portfolio of brands is aiming for the very top. —Bryan Hood

The Mercedes Concept AMG GT XX was unveiled in June and shown off at Pebble Beach in its metallic flesh, a 1,341-horsepower hypercar that can also charge enough battery power in five minutes to get up to 248 miles of range. Both numbers are big if true, and because this is Mercedes, are very likely underestimations if anything. The headline numbers are overwhelming, but also, strangely, normal, and are a measure of how common 1,000+ horsepower is. The charging number is a measure of how little any of us still get range anxiety. Much faster charging is on the way, and the world’s charging network keeps getting bigger, too. — Erik Shilling

The Buick Electra Orbit was something genuinely surprising, in that, first of all, it was a reminder that Buick is still alive and kicking, and, second, that Buick is still capable of making something so unabashedly different. The Electra Orbit also may never happen, like many a concept before it. But Buick would do well to think this big about the cars that do, and, hopefully, take some cues from the 18-foot-long, 6-foot-wide luxury boat with 2-foot wheels. We all still need to forget about the Cascada somehow. — ES

If Genesis really wants to change the way it’s viewed by the car-buying public, the Gran X Equator is a fantastic way to start. The marque’s first adventure vehicle prototype made its debut at this year’s New York International Auto Show. It’s a futuristic-looking off-roader with a smooth, sophisticated shape that rides atop a giant set of 24-inch beadlock wheels. But what really sets the high-riding 4×4 apart is its interior. The blue-and-tan cabin has a charming throwback vibe, forgoing a giant touchscreen found in the marque’s current crop of vehicles and replacing it with vintage-style digital gauges, physical buttons, and a crystal ball shifter. —BH

“Futuristic” is a word that gets thrown around a lot when discussing concepts, but it’s really the only way to describe the Peugeot Polygon. The hatchback prototype’s angular shape and neon-bright lighting package give it the look of a car from a racing video game set decades from now. The bold design choices aren’t exclusive to the exterior, either. The colorful, four-seat cabin features a rectangular steering wheel called the “Hypersquare,” which looks more like the yoke you’d find in a Formula 1 race car than anything street legal. —BH

The Genesis Magma GT Concept is the Korean luxury marque’s first pure supercar concept and the basic building block for what Genesis hopes will be a long, long future of going to head-to-head with BMW M, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, and Lexus F, luxury performance car standard bearers. The Magma GT Concept is a good start, with a V-8 that makes 670 horsepower and scissor doors, a car that sets a marker and is also unfinished. The production version might even go hybrid by the time it’s ready, or stick with the V-8, perhaps just to prove its bona fides. For fans of luxury performance cars, there aren’t many things more exciting than a new challenger. — ES

BMW found a way to make the Concept Skytop from last year even more striking—add a roof. The German marque brought a hard-top version of the two-door dubbed the Speedtop with it to the 2025 edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the same car show where the original roadster debuted one year prior. The new prototype has all the style and flair of its predecessor. That’s not all the two vehicles have in common, though. BMW also plans to build 70 examples of the concept, all of which have already sold out. —BH

The Audi Concept C fills a TT-sized hole in Audi’s lineup, offering a preview of a replacement for a car that was as beloved as Audis get. Well, not exactly, as Audi says that the Concept C is actually not a replacement for the TT but “somewhere between the TT and the R8.” It is true that the Concept C will never be the TT; nothing can ever be the TT except a TT. The Concept C, however, looks promising enough, and hopefully in a few years we’ll be talking about it in the same breath. — ES

This year had its fair share of absurd concepts, but none were as ridiculous as the Renault Filante Record 2025. The French marque’s prototype has a stretched-out, Art Deco-inspired exterior that calls to mind the Batmobile from Tim Burton’s Batman films. The automaker also thinks its “sculpture in motion” has what it takes to become the most efficient EV of all time. Although there appear to be no plans to put the coupe into production, one example has been built to pursue history. By at least one metric, it’s already achieved this goal. In late December, the lightweight speed machine drove 626 miles on a single charge in under 10 hours. —BH

The Lexus LFA Concept debuted under special circumstances, at a special event not two months removed from the Japan Mobility Show, where Toyota had thought about debuting the next iteration of its legendary sports car but decided better of it. The car didn’t disappoint, even though much of it had been seen before, first at The Quail, and then at the Japan Mobility Show itself, before it had a name. The car will also not hit roads until later this decade, and Toyota will spend the years in between perfecting it. Well, getting close at least. — ES