Autocar Great Women: Rising Stars 2025, an initiative run by Autocar in association with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, celebrates the up-and-coming stars of the British automotive industry.

The industry’s top rising stars will be announced at a ceremony on 30 April. 

The top candidates will be selected from the following areas of the car industry: Customer aftercare; Marketing; Manufacturing; Mobility and digital; Operations; Diversity, equity and inclusion; PR and communications; Purchasing; Sales - retail; Sales - OEM;  Vehicle development.

In addition, there will be an apprentice category.

Information on each category is detailed below.

A winner will be selected in each category, with an overall victor then chosen from that shortlist.

Individuals can put themselves forward for consideration, or can be nominated by friends, colleagues and employers.

Please look far and wide within your organisation for women to nominate - we’re encouraging people to think outside of their immediate team for people deserving of an award.

Those nominating will need to supply evidence of the nominee’s potential to rise to the top of the industry.

There is no limit on the number of nominations submitted, but they must be registered by 11.59pm on 31 January.

Submit your entry, or nominate a colleague, here

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CATEGORIES

Customer aftercare

This category is open to anyone working in an aftersales environment, and is specifically retail, workshop and garage focused. The scale of the operation you work in is not as important as your ability to demonstrate going above and beyond in helping and assisting customers.

Marketing

Open to anyone who holds a marketing role for an OEM, supplier or retailer. You must be able to demonstrate that your input makes a difference to the way that customers interact with or perceive your brand, be it on a local, regional, national or international level.

Manufacturing 

Open to anyone whose role encompasses manufacturing for an OEM or supplier. This can cover small- or large-scale manufacturing, ranging from prototype to full-scale assembly.

Mobility and digital

Open to anyone who is driven by digital or technical innovation. If your job didn't exist 10 years ago and is using cutting-edge technology to revolutionise the automotive industry, then you should enter this category – it covers everything from future mobility options to digital transformation.

Operations 

Open to anyone whose role encompasses an operations element in the OEM, supplier and sales environments, including finance. This is a broad category, but deliberately so, in order to highlight rising stars who are making a difference to the core fabric of their business.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

This category is designed to recognise that the automotive industry is moving to become a more appealing career prospect for wider sections of society. Enter this category if you have helped to move the game on by being part of a new inclusive system or policy and can demonstrate the impact of it, be that within a small business or a multinational entity. It is not aimed solely at HR professionals and is open to anyone who works in automotive.

PR and communications

Open to anyone who holds a PR or communications role for an OEM, supplier or retailer. You must be able to demonstrate that your input makes a difference to the way that your brand is perceived by customers, your direct community and internal stakeholders (or other areas, as appropriate).

Purchasing

Open to anyone who works in the procurement side of a business, be that a large OEM or smaller supplier or retailer. The size of the business isn’t important, but you should demonstrate that you can bring cost savings to a business using innovative thinking and/or a successful relationship with suppliers.

Sales - retail

Open to anyone whose role encompasses working in retail sales, consistently breaking targets in a showroom environment where the candidate is consumer facing. You should be able to demonstrate that you can regularly exceed the targets set by the dealer.

Sales - OEM

Open to anyone whose role involves working in OEM supplier sales or who is a key part of a sales operation for a UK importer. This category is intended for people whose job is more B2B in nature, focused on delivering for the automotive industry away from the consumer environment.

Vehicle development

Open to anyone whose role encompasses vehicle development for an OEM or supplier. This covers every area of development of new or revised vehicles, engineering and testing.

Apprentice 

Open to anyone working on an apprenticeship scheme at the time of entry within the retail and manufacturer environments. Applicants must demonstrate an enthusiasm for the chosen specialism and a future career within the car industry. A clear vision of what you want to achieve during your career and how you expect to achieve it should be demonstrated.

Submit your entry, or nominate a colleague, here