The Sunday Times and The Sun name their Cars of the Year 

The winners of the News UK Motor Awards 2022 were revealed last night at a gala winners ceremony held at The News Building, with coverage also running on print and digital channels across The Sunday Times, Driving.co.uk, The Sun and TheSun.co.uk.

The awards, now in their fifth year, continue to champion all motoring segments from hot hatches to family cars, as well as city to adventure cars. The awards are judged by a panel of News UK’s expert automotive journalists including The Sun’s Rob Gill and Rory White, Will Dron from Driving.co.uk, Nick Rufford from Sunday Times magazine and David Green on LUXX magazine. In addition, a Reader's Choice award was created across all of the titles for the public to vote for their favourite cars from a selected shortlist

The Mercedes EQE was named The Sunday Times Car of the Year and the Kia Niro triumphed as The Sun Car of the Year. Popular Formula One motorsport pundit Martin Brundle was also honoured as the Motoring Personality of the Year, picking up his award from the awards host and Times Radio presenter John Pienaar. The Kia Sportage won in the inaugural Reader’s Choice award, picking up a third of all votes cast to beat the five other contenders.

In addition, the Motor Awards continues to recognise the hero models that have truly stood the test of time, both in terms of build and design quality as well as popularity with motorists. These cars have been innovated and reintroduced in different iterations over several decades and rightly deserve to be acknowledged as legendary icons of UK automotive. The Honda Civic Type R was named The Sunday Times Legend Car of the Year and the Ford Fiesta crowned as The Sun Legend Car of the Year.

Rob Walsh, Motors Category Director, News UK, said: “Motors is an industry that News UK continues to fully support, both in the extensive editorial coverage we provide across all our titles but also how we partner with brands to create successful commercial campaigns across print, radio, digital and video. The Motor Awards sits as a central part of this commitment and we’re delighted to help share the news of our many 2022 winners.

Rob Gill, Motors Editor, The Sun, said: “Kia has gone to every length possible to make the Niro as good as it can be for every type of person, all wrapped up with sensible pricing and low-rate finance, underpinned by that seven-year warranty. The Niro is an exceptional car, punching way ahead of the rest, and for that reason it is the obvious choice as The Sun’s 2022 Car of the Year, as well as our Small SUV/Crossover of the Year. With Kia UK selling more cars than ever it was a no-brainer that they should also be rewarded with Manufacturer of the Year, making it an unprecedented FIVE category wins in the Motor Awards 2022”.

Nick Rufford, Sunday Times Motoring Editor, said: “The Mercedes EQE scored top marks for comfort and for blistering performance. It’s unashamedly priced as a Tesla-killer so for less than three quarters of the price of the company’s top-of-the-range electric limo — the EQS — you get the same levels of luxury in a slightly smaller package.”

In full, the award winners are: 

The judges for this year’s awards were: 

Please visit www.driving.co.uk and www.thesun.co.uk/motors for full details of the winners.