Who raced to victory at this years Driver’s Choice Awards?

Written By Auto Trader

When it comes to choosing a car, expert reviews and industry awards can offer valuable insights, but nothing carries quite the same weight as the opinions of the people who drive these vehicles every day. That’s what makes the Autotrader Driver’s Choice Awards so unique. Over 160,000 car owners all across the UK took part in our survey this year, making it the largest survey of its kind¹. Unlike traditional automotive awards judged solely by industry experts, The Driver’s Choice Awards are powered by real-world experiences, creating a clear picture of what it’s actually like to live with a car day in and day out. There were 250 models that featured this year, ranging from iconic models to fresh additions.

In this article we’ll cover

  • EV momentum in the UK

  • How new brands are disrupting the market

  • The standout winners from the 2026 awards

The awards celebrate the vehicles that genuinely deliver on the things that matter to drivers, from design technology, how fun it is to drive and running costs. As the automotive landscape continues to evolve, these awards are here to reflect the lived experiences of car buyers and help us gain a better understanding of what buyers consider when it comes to actually buying a vehicle. The good news is that UK drivers seem to be generally happy with their cars with the average score of those who love their car sitting at 4.1 out of 5¹.

EV momentum in the UK



The latest Driver’s Choice Awards reveal changing priorities among UK drivers. While performance and style remain important, drivers are increasingly placing value on technology, reliability and overall value for money. The success of electric and hybrid vehicles in recent years also reflects growing consumer confidence in the move to electric and a wider shift towards more sustainable motoring in the industry. Electric models now make up 35 out of 47 shortlisted cars, growing from just 27 last year.

We’ve also seen a massive surge in EV interest on Autotrader especially over the last 12 months. In April 2026 for the first time ever EV enquiries on Autotrader increased by a massive 125% YoY and used EVs now account for 9-in-10 electrci enquiries on our platform¹. Alongside this, our data shows that once a driver makes the shift to electric they love their EV¹.



This year electric brands dominated our awards with

The Renault 5 E-Tech speeding away with The Most Fun Car to Drive Award

Tesla accelerated past the competition to take home the Most Reliable Brand Award

Chery snapping up the Best Value Brand Award

Having these categories dominated by EVs is a clear indicator that this shift to electric is here and now. For the first time ever EV supply has fallen by 10% while demand continues to grow to 59% as of May 2026¹. The market is moving in the right direction, and buyers are strapped in and along for the ride.

 

How new brands are disrupting the market

This year also saw a lot of new brands drive away with some pretty impressive awards. The BYD Seal U left the competition in the rear-view mirror taking home the Best Value Car award with other models like the Jaecoo 7, and MGS5 also being shortlisted for this award. Notably these are all brands that didn’t exist in the UK a few short years ago. The BYD Seal also shifted into first place with the Best In-Car Technology award beating out both the Jaecoo 7 and the Tesla Model Y.

For a brand like BYD to park themselves at the top of the podium with two big awards having only entered the UK car market in 2023 shows just how fast the car industry is changing in the UK. As we know, the UK market is growing at rapid pace with a predicted 75 brands in the UK by the end of this year in comparison to just 45 in 2019¹. On average a new model from new and established brands alike has been launched every 10 days over the past 5 years and by 2030 we could be looking at 100 brands selling cars in the UK¹. Inevitably this will have an impact on brand loyalty, and we have already begun to see how loyalty is fragmenting in the market. This year’s survey data shows that just over a third of all new car buyers are buying from the same brand they’re coming out of ¹. Brand loyalty drops even more when we look at EVs, where brand loyalty is around half that of ICE loyalty.


We’ve got more brands and models that ever before on Autotrader, but we also have more eyes than ever, with 81.8 million monthly cross-platform visits last year on our platform². Knowing how to stand out to the right customer and capturing your audience at the right time with the right vehicle will be more important than ever.


At Autotrader we’re committed to helping your business succeed, because your success is our success. Our partenrships team are also on hand to help maximise visibilty and get more eyes on your vehicles. You can also access our best practice guide here.

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The full list of winners

  • Tesla Model Y

  • Renault 5 E-Tech

  • BYD Seal U

  • Tesla Model Y

  • Hypervolt

  • Nissan Leaf

  • Tesla Model 3

  • Renault 5 E-Tech

  • Porche

  • Skoda Enyaq

  • Defender 110

  • BMW iX3

  • Tesla

  • Chery

  • Porsche 911

  • JLR House of Brands

  • Toyota

  • Ferrari Luce

  • Peugeot 208

  • Volvo XC90

  • Defender 110

  • Tesla Supercharger

  • BYD Seal

  • Renault 5 E-Tech

Sources

  1. Autotrader - Drivers Choice Awards 2026

  2. Internal Data: Snowplow analytics data, average number of cross-platform visits a month between January 2025 through December 2025.

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