Best small electric cars 2026
Take your mind back about 15 years. The Con-Lib coalition. Robbie’s glorious return to Take That. Lady Gaga dressed as a kebab. And if you wanted a small electric car, your choice was a G-Wiz or a Mitsubishi i-MIEV. LOL.
Now, fast-forward just a few years. Electric cars are much better, but most are big and fancy and expensive. Stuff like the Porsche Taycan. That's because they cost a fortune to develop. New tech always does.
But over the last couple of years, we’ve seen the EV market mature to the point that we’re now getting a load of small electric cars, lots of them brilliant and quite reasonably priced. Small in stature, but big on tech and personality.
So here are what we reckon are the best small electric cars, most of which can cost less than £25,000. For context, that’s about £16k in 2010's money - about the price a mid-spec petrol Ford Focus would have cost. Or a ticket to see Take That...
Best small electric cars |
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1. Renault 5 E-Tech
- The best small electric car ever made… so far, anyway.
Hopefully, the Renault 5 won’t go the same way as the GWM Ora. It almost certainly won’t. The Renault 5 seems to be flying off the showroom floor based on how many we’re already seeing on the roads. No surprise, really. It’s a lesson in how to do a retro-future small car: big battery range, big personality, big driving fun…small package.
Prices kick off at a shade below £23,000 and never exceed £30k, which makes it one of the best value EVs on sale. At the lower end of the scale you're looking at a 40 kWh battery with a 190-mile claimed range.
Stretch to the 53 kWh version if you can, which bumps the range up to 250 miles (near enough). Specification is good even in a basic car, with every Renault 5 getting a heat pump (for maximum battery efficiency even during winter months), a twin-screen display and Google-powered infotainment. Winner winner, poulet dinner.
2. BYD Dolphin Surf
- Striking design, decent space, alright price and comfy in a basic sort of way.
The BYD Dolphin Surf is one of those cars that’s just… canny. Nothing to get excited about, but very easy to justify because it doesn’t do anything wrong. Comfy-ish to ride in. Fun-ish to drive. Good-ish to look at. Cheap-ish to buy. It’s annoying that it costs, like, a third of the price in China, though. Try not to think about that and just enjoy how cheap it is to get to the Co-op every day.
That price, then: £18,500. We're assured that this is a superior car to the £6k Chinese model, though, because it has a bit more safety kit and... erm... It is well-specified in fairness and still one of the lowest-cost EVs in the UK.
Bottom-rung cars get a 137-mile claimed range, making it a town runabout, really, but there is a 43kWh model with a 200-mile claimed range. Get that one if you're willing to finance £20k-plus. All Dolphin Surfs come with adaptive cruise control, keyless entry, BYD's fancy spinning touchscreen, a 308-litre boot space (massive for a city car) and a six-year, 94,000-mile warranty.
3. Hyundai Inster
- Unbelievably flexible for a small car... in the right spec.
The Hyundai Inster is flexible. Flexible like a Play-Doh credit card. It has masses of interior space, all the seats fold fully and slide and yet the body is small, so it’s easy to park. The battery range is mint for a little car, at up to 229 miles and it doesn’t scrimp on tech either. It has twin digital displays, blind spot cameras and even the three-pin socket that the (much more expensive) Ioniq EVs get. So you can plug another EV into it, if you like.
That level of space, flexibility and equipment makes it feel like a heck of a lot of car for £23,000. Albeit, and quite vexingly, only the top spec car of two (creatively titled 01 and 02) gets the flexible seating. If that's not a deal breaker, then an 01 should be all the Inster you need, coming with cruise control, air con, wireless smartphone mirroring, and either of the two battery options.
There's not much between them to be fair, with a 42kWh unit providing "up to 203 miles" of range and a 49kWh Long Range model adding just 26 miles to that. It's a similar story with the power, as it happens: the choice of either 97PS or 115PS is hardly enough difference to notice.
4. Citroen e-C3 Aircross
- A budget-friendly little EV with loads of space that doesn’t feel cheap.
The Citroen e-C3 Aircross offers tonnes of space and excellent quality - all for just a grand more than the non-Aircross e-C3. Looks are a matter of taste, obviously, but we think the chunky styling is mega and as per all modern Citroens, the ride comfort is exquisite.
All versions get Citroen's so-called 'Advanced Comfort' suspension while the seats are among the most relaxing you'll ever sit on. The infotainment is fathomable to. If you’ve had much experience with a last-generation Citroen touchscreen, you’ll know that “fathomable” is a gargantuan improvement.
Priced from around £25,000, it's not the cheapest EV in the UK, but because of all the space and kit, it's probably the best value. A 44 kWh battery paired with a (not very quick) 113 PS motor gives you up to 188 miles of range, claimed. And while its 100 kW max charging rate isn't cutting-edge, it's good for a 20–80% rapid charge in less than half an hour. We only wish it had sliding seats, in which case it would be the most flexible small EV on the market, hands down.
5. Fiat 500 Electric
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- Fiat 500 style, but this time the car is ACTUALLY good.
The petrol Fiat 500 has always been a bit ropey underneath its layers of cute retro styling - styling that's always been enough to make it fly off the shelves. Well, that and being really cheap to run. Plus being 'customisable' in the same way a MINI is.
The electric Fiat 500, though...is MUCH better, in every way. Quality is in a different league, the driving position is fit for humans taller than 5ft, the refinement is infinitely better... and it does all this with no loss of personality. It’s a brilliant city car.
As is becoming more common, even in small EVs, you get a couple of battery sizes to choose from: a 24kWh unit with a claimed 115 miles (making this more suited to being a local pizzeria billboard than anything else), and a 42kWh model with a 199-mile range. That's the one to get, not just for the obvious advantage of the additional mileage between charges, but it will be MUCH easier to sell on.
6. GWM Ora 03
- Masses of cabin space, decent battery, uniquely retro looks.
For a little while, the CFKATFC (“Car Formerly Known As The Funky Cat”) felt like it would make a real impact. Cute looks, loads of cabin space, reasonably priced and decent to drive. But then GWM (that's Great Wall Motors to you and me) went and gave it a sensible name. And it just sort of… went off the radar. And that was despite Ora basically selling them at a loss for a while to get them on the road. Yet it’s a really cool little EV and well worth a look.
It's not perfect, mainly because its infotainment already feels last generation, with its tiny icons, baffling menus and loads of wasted screen space. But you'll get used to it. More difficult to get used to is an attention alert system that's less patient than the mardy army dudes on SAS: Who Dares Wins. The merest glance away from the road will have the car bonging at you like a nuclear meltdown is imminent.
Still, if you remember to turn the Ora 03 off every time you get into the car, you'll enjoy a runabout that's rare, cheap, and (if you get the bigger 63kWh battery option) can do up to 260 miles on a single charge.
7. Peugeot E-208
- Looks great, and still one of the best interiors in any small car
The not-so-good stuff first: the Peugeot E-208 is cramped (especially in the back), has a little boot and its tiny steering wheel means the driving position is problematic for anyone of average height or above. Also it’s due to be replaced quite soon.
But it’s here because the cabin has aged beautifully - it still feels modern - and it’s proper sharp to drive. Yet it's a quiet and comfy thing to get to work and back in, too... assuming you're on the shorter side, that is.
Its age means there are some great deals to be had now (and plenty of used examples kicking about), so for that reason we'd look for the best-specified car you feel comfortable paying for. There's only one battery and motor choice (50kWh, 136PS, 248-mile claimed range), but top-spec GT trim feels like a lot of car. It's the only one that comes with heated seats, blind spot monitoring and Peugeot's fancy '3D-effect' instrument binnacle. The sporty styling really suits the car as well.
8. Smart #1
- Ideal if you like constantly saying “no, it’s not a hashtag, it means number one!”
An upper-specification Smart #1 has a range of almost 280 miles, which shows just how advanced EVs have become over the last few years. Here's a small electric car with a battery range that surpasses what a standard Tesla Model 3 could do when it first landed.
The Smart #1 charges quickly (up to 150kW), rides with refinement, is quick even at the bottom of the range and looks funky too. Only the slightly shonky infotainment lets the side down.
None of this is cheap, however. You're looking at £36,000 for a base car and it's possible to add ten grand to that if yours has 'Brabus' written on it. Yikes. A 62 kWh battery is standard, and although the mileage varies depending on trim, all get a 22 kW onboard charger. That essentially means the car can juice up three times faster at a workplace AC charging point than it can at home - a bit of practical tech that's still quite rare in smaller EVs.
9. Dacia Spring
- Perfect if you want the cheapest electric car this side of a Citroen Ami.
To be perfectly honest, this probably shouldn’t be on any best EVs list. It’s just not that good. Uncultured to drive, not much space, not much battery range, not much standard kit and not much love from Euro NCAP. It infamously received a one-star score from the European safety body. Damn. However, the Dacia Spring is blindingly cheap, which might be enough to make you consider using one to get to work and back.
The cheapest new EV in the UK, it's priced from a fiver below £15k, making its main rival a used Nissan Leaf. It's impossible to get near £20,000 for a Dacia Spring and the top spec model does actually look surprisingly well-equipped.
Called Extreme (not after the band that sang More Than Words, we're told), it has a 10-inch touchscreen, alloys, wireless smartphone mirroring and a three-pin socket, so you can whip out your air fryer at the campsite and cook up some potato waffles. The battery tech borders on archaic, though, with 26kWh capacity and a max charging rate of just 30kW. A straw to a standard EV's drainpipe.
10. Leapmotor T03
- Cheap, rare, zero emissions and… erm…
Yes you can here the sound of a barrel being scraped here. But bear with us. Like the Dacia Spring, the Leapmotor T03 is here less because it’s a good car and more because it offers something zero-emissions and very cost-effective.
It's much better-equipped than the Dacia Spring with a single trim level that comes with a ten-inch touchscreen as standard. As well as a reversing camera, panoramic glass roof, heated mirrors, alloy wheels and keyless start.
It charges at up to 48kW speed (about the same as an electric Vauxhall Corsa), does up to 165 miles between charge-ups and because it doesn't weigh much, its 95PS motor is... adequate. When you factor all that in, it actually makes much more sense than the Dacia Spring. Because you get all this for just £15,995. A mere grand above a basic Spring. Back of the net (zero)!
What is the cheapest small electric car on sale?
If you’re not too picky on the exact definition of ‘car’, the quirky Citroen Ami is the most affordable electric runabout on sale at £7595. But it is just that... a runabout. With a top speed of less than 30mph. Useless for most, then. The cheapest proper car that's electric is the Dacia Spring, but as you'll have read above, that's very compromised too. So for us, if you want something zero emissions that's cheap above all else, but still decent, your best bets are a BYD Dolphin Surf or a Citroen e-C3.
What is the battery range for a small electric car?
Gone are the days when you could expect no more than 100 miles of range from a small electric car. The Fiat 500 Electric offers up to 199 miles, for example and both the Peugeot e-208 and Vauxhall Corsa Electric have ranges of more than 220 miles. But the Renault 5 E-Tech beats them all, with a 250-mile claimed range.
How spacious are small electric cars?
The best small cars are surprisingly spacious anyway. But take away the engine and even more room can be created for passengers. The best example of a spacious small car is the Hyundai Inster, which is so vast inside (well... "vast" is probably the wrong word) that there's a mattress option for it, so you can drop all the seats and sleep in it. The Citroen e-C3 Aircross is extremely spacious too.
What's the best electric city car?
