Autocar Awards 2022 honours Hyundai, Kia, Rimac and more

The Kia EV6, What Car?'s Car of the Year for 2022, has been named as Britain's best electric car by our sister title, Autocar, at its annual awards.

The awards, which recognise the best cars on sale today and the people involved in making them, also named the Land Rover Defender as the best SUV, the Tesla Model 3 as the best company car and the Skoda Enyaq iV as the best family car.

Autocar's top honour, the Issigonis Trophy – named after Mini designer Sir Alec Issigonis – was awarded to Rimac founder Mate Rimac, in recognition of the contribution that he and his company have made to the car industry. Rimac produces high-end sports cars of its own design, but is also a major supplier to other car makers. 

Other industry figures celebrated as part of the Autocar Awards included Prodrive founder David Richards, who was this year's recipient of the Sturmey Award – named after Autocar's founding editor, Henry Sturmey. The Sturmey Award celebrates an individual who has brought the highest technical standards to the car industry. 

Car designer Gordon Murray, Hyundai designer SangYup Lee and Stellantis (which includes the Peugeot, Citroën and Vauxhall brands) managing director Alison Jones also took home accolades, for engineering, design and leadership respectively. The Lifetime Achievement Award was won by Peter Schreyer, designer of cars including the original Volkswagen Golf and Audi TT, and now in charge of design at Hyundai and Kia.

Among the other cars to be recognised as part of the event were the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, BMW i3 and Toyota GR Yaris, all of which were named as 'future classics' by Autocar. The Porsche 911 GT3 was named as Britain's Best Driver's Car, while the Hyundai i20 N hot hatch was named as Britain's Best Affordable Driver's Car.

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Next: See the winners of the 2022 What Car? Car of the Year Awards >>