Thatcham Research-supported What Car?, have announced the winners of the Car of the Year Safety and Technology Awards 2021 with the Volkswagen ID.3 coming out as the safest vehicle.

The work Volkswagen has put into designing its ID.3 from the ground up has been recognised by award judges who named the all-electric model the safest car of the year. Meanwhile the impressive functionality and performance improvements that Tesla has made to its vehicle fleet in 2020 especially in terms of its over-the-air update capability has been recognised in the technology category.

Launched in 2020 as the first fully-electric vehicle to join the Volkswagen family, the ID.3 scored a maximum five-star Euro NCAP safety rating in October. This was especially impressive as 2020’s testing protocols are the toughest ever.

Tesla’s over-the-air (OTA) software update technology wirelessly introduce new features to its vehicles that improve functionality, performance and safety capability. This breed of technology is used by a handful of other carmakers, but Tesla has used OTA updates to make a raft of notable improvements to its vehicle fleet during 2020.