With more and more stringent requirements on driving comfort, safety and fuel economy, polytopic LPV approaches have become popular in intelligent automotive control systems due to their merits in dealing with the complex nonlinearities. This survey starts with a review on control theory of polytopic LPV systems. Stability analysis and controller design are provided with techniques in obtaining less conservative results. Then, some key applications in vehicle dynamics control are provided. Several LPV models concerning the vertical dynamics, lateral dynamics and integrated dynamics are introduced. Different polytopic LPV control designs are summarized taking various settings on time-varying parameters into account. Moreover, polytopic LPV approaches in vehicle path following and powertrain control are concluded, including the applications in internal combustion engines, electric vehicles and aftertreatment systems. Finally, from recent advances on polytopic LPV control theory and automotive applications, future research directions and related challenges are discussed.