Renault 5 grabs ANOTHER Car of the Year award – wins too for Jaecoo 7, Kia EV3 and more

The Renault 5 EV is the 2025 Scottish Car of the Year, with category wins for the Jaecoo 7, Kia Ev3 and more.

Many legacy car makers are struggling to deliver properly appealing, good-looking and (relatively) affordable EVs, but that’s not a problem Renault has, with its appealing-styled Renault 5 and Renault 4 EVs doing good business.

It’s nearly two years since the new Renault 5 EV was revealed, and its appeal has been confirmed with an impressive array of Car of the Year awards, including the Business COTY 2025, European COTY 2025 and Top Gear COTY. And now it’s grabbed another gong, this time the 2025 Scottish Car of the Year.

Ally Ballingall, Association of Scottish Motor Writers’ president, said:

To say competition for this year’s Scottish Car of the Year was tough is an understatement. After a whole year, scores of cars, and thousands of miles, it all comes down to one decision and our judges said the winning car had to make financial sense in these tough times, but it also must appeal to our heart strings just as much as our wallets.

The overall winner also had to be practical, capable, great to drive, and look the part. That’s a big ask, but the one car did it all and plenty more, and that was the Renault 5.

As we’ve come to expect, a number of the category awards went to EVs, with the R5 also declared Small COTY, Alpine A290 Performance COTY and Kia EV3 Compact SUV COTY.

Other winners included the Jaecoo 7 as best family car, Hyundai Tucson and MG HS as best used car buys, Genesis GV70 as best premium car, Toyota Land Cruiser as best utility and Mazda CX-80 as best large car.