What are the best budget EVs?

Electric cars in the UK start at an RRP of just £11,990. Many others on this list sit between £23,000 and £30,000. That's the sticker price, though, and it isn't what most people actually pay each month. That will depend on how you pay for the car.

Here are seven of the best budget EVs on sale now, their real-world range, boot space and what each one is like to live with. 

• The Dacia Spring is the cheapest new electric car in the UK at the moment, at £11,990, but the downside is it only does about 100 miles between charges.
• The Renault 5 E-Tech gives you the most range for your money, at 205 miles of real-world range at a list price of £23,945.
• The Leapmotor B10 goes furthest of the seven budget EVs we cover, at 220 miles, and has the best storage space with the seats folded, at 1,700 litres.
• The Ford Puma Gen-E has a 43-litre front boot, which is the most useful thing on this list if you own a dog.
• An EV’s sticker price and monthly cost are different. Leasing spreads the cost and bundles servicing, maintenance, MOTs and road tax into one payment, so you can’t compare the two prices as though they’re like for like.

The Dacia Spring is the cheapest new electric car on sale in the UK, from £11,990 according to the EV Database in September 2026. The Vauxhall Frontera Electric is next from £22,495. Every car in this article comes in at an RRP of under £32,000 new. 

Part of the reason prices have come down is the Electric Car Grant. Eligible new electric cars get a discount of either £3,750 or £1,500, depending on which band they fall into. You don't need to apply for it. The seller or leasing company takes it off the price for you.

Sources: Octopus EV & EV Database, last updated 9th September 2026.

The Dacia Spring is the cheapest way into an electric car, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It comes in at 100 miles of real-world range from a 25kWh battery. 

The boot holds 308 litres, or 1,004 litres with the back seats folded. That's more than you'd expect from something this small.

The interior is deliberately basic but it’s not completely devoid of tech. You get the My Dacia app to schedule charging and warm the cabin before you leave, it’s vehicle-to-load enabled so you can power small appliances straight from the car, and comes with YouClip mounting points for clipping accessories around the cabin.

The Dacia Spring’s compact body size makes it worth a look if you need something small, with its 9.6m turning circle. In a multi-storey or a tight terraced street, that could matter more than power.

The honest caveat: 100 miles is 100 miles. It'll do a school run, a commute and the weekly shop without you thinking about it. It won't do Manchester to London in one go. A home charger takes it to 80% in about 3 hours 9 minutes, and 0 to 60mph takes 13.7 seconds, so it’s worth planning your motorway trips.

Need five seats and a proper boot for as little £ as possible? The Frontera could be your answer.

It starts at £22,495 RRP, and does 145 miles of real-world range from a 44kWh battery. The boot holds 460 litres, rising to 1,600 litres with the seats down. That's more space than the Renault 5 and the Leapmotor B10 offer.

There's nothing flashy about the cabin. Vauxhall has put the money into space instead of screens.

A 7kW home charger takes it from 10% to 80% in about 4 hours 54 minutes, and it'll take a rapid charger at up to 97kW as well.

The trade-off is range and pace. 145 miles suits local driving more than a daily motorway commute, and 0 to 60mph takes 12.1 seconds, so quick overtaking is unlikely.

The Renault 5 is one of the most popular budget EVs on this list. 

It starts at £23,945 - including the Electric Car Grant. Real-world range is 205 miles from the 52kWh battery, which is the best range per pound here.

The boot is one compromise. It holds 326 litres, or 1,000 litres with the seats folded, which is small for a family car. If you're regularly carrying a pushchair and a dog, you may want to look at the Vauxhall Frontera or the Ford Puma instead.

The tech is better than the price suggests. Vehicle-to-load runs kit off the battery at up to 3.7kW, and vehicle-to-home can feed the house at up to 11kW. Rapid charging peaks at 101kW, so 10% to 80% takes about 31 minutes.

Our team put the Renault 5 to the test, see the full verdict in our Renault 5 review.

The Jaecoo E5 answers one question: how much equipment can you get for under £27,000?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. It starts at £27,505, does 200 miles of real-world range, and has a 480-litre boot that goes to 1,180 litres with the seats down. Inside there's a 14.8-inch touchscreen and a panoramic sunroof. 

Our own Jaecoo E5 review covers other cool features you might otherwise miss. A 540-degree camera with a transparent mode that shows what's under the car, a camping mode that turns the battery into a power supply, a Pet mode that keeps the climate running for a dog left in the car, and 35 storage cubbies. We counted.

Rapid charging runs to 130kW, so 20% to 80% takes just 33 minutes. 0 to 60mph is 7.7 seconds, which is quick for the money. 

Overall, this car is great value for money. See our full, unadulterated opinion in our Jaecoo E5 review.

The MG4 Urban's best feature is one you'll only notice in the colder months. It comes with a heat pump as standard. On a budget electric car that's usually the first thing to get cut, but it stops your range from collapsing when it's cold outside. Worth more than another inch of touchscreen. 

The MG4 Urban’s RRP is £27,995. Its real-world range is 200 miles from a 52.8kWh battery, and the boot holds 568 litres, rising to 1,362 litres with the seats folded.

Rapid charging peaks at 87kW, taking you from 10% to 80% in about 31 minutes. On a 7kW home charger the same top-up takes about 5 hours 57 minutes. 0 to 60mph is 9.5 seconds, which is unremarkable but entirely acceptable.

The Puma Gen-E's party trick is a hole in the floor. Stick with us. Under the boot floor sits the MegaBox, and there's a 43-litre front boot as well. Both drain, so muddy wellies, wet dog

towels and a split bag of compost all have somewhere to go that isn't your back seat. The main boot holds 523 litres, or 1,283 litres with the seats down.

It's RRP starts at £26,245 and it does 188 miles of real-world range from a 46.8kWh battery.

Rapid charging peaks at 100kW, so 10% to 80% takes about 24 minutes, and the car warms its own battery on the way if you've set the charger in the navigation. Plug and Charge support means you plug in and walk away without opening an app.

Not ready to spend £30,000 with a brand you'd never heard of two years ago? This is the one to consider. And it’s eligible for the Electric Car Grant. 

The Leapmotor B10 is the most expensive car of our budget electric car list, at £31,495 RRP. It's also the one that goes furthest and charges quickest, so it earns its place.

Real-world range is 220 miles from a 65kWh battery. Rapid charging peaks at 168kW, which means 10% to 80% in about 26 minutes. That's time for a coffee at the motorway services, not a meal.

The boot holds 430 litres, and 1,700 litres with the seats folded, which is the biggest maximum load space of the seven. It's a five-seat SUV with rear-wheel drive, and 0 to 60mph takes 8 seconds.

The flip side of a bigger battery is a longer home charge. Expect about 7 hours 21 minutes from 10% to 80% on a 7kW charger, so you'll be charging overnight rather than topping up over lunch. 

Watch our full verdict in our Leapmotor B10 Review on YouTube.

Yes, and the savings compared to petrol are bigger than most people expect.

A full charge at home can cost just £4.07 in a typical EV, compared with £38.79 for the same amount of miles in an equivalent petrol car. Put another way, you can charge at home for as little as 2p per mile, with an exclusive EV charging tariff from Octopus Energy, compared with 18p per mile for petrol. That rate comes from Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver, Octopus Energy's home charging tariff, which is exclusive to Octopus EV drivers. Both figures describe a typical electric car rather than the specific models on this list, and what you pay depends on your tariff and when you charge.

Then there's road tax. Electric cars registered on or after 1 April 2025 pay a £10 first-year rate, then the £200 standard rate. None of these seven costs more than £50,000, so none of them picks up the extra charge that applies to pricier cars.

Servicing is the one people forget. There's no oil to change, no exhaust and no clutch, so there's less to go wrong and less to pay for. On a lease it's usually bundled into the monthly payment anyway.

Cheap to buy doesn't always mean cheap to run. With these, it does.

Here's the thing about a sticker price. Almost nobody pays for the car in one go.

Most people spread the cost, and leasing is one way to do that. It also changes what you're comparing. Instead of finding £27,000 to throw at the car, you're looking at a monthly figure that, with Octopus EV, also covers servicing, maintenance, MOTs and road tax. And with salary sacrifice, you’ll also get insurance included.

There are two routes through Octopus EV.

• Personal leasing is a straightforward contract hire agreement. You pick the car, pay an initial amount and then a monthly payment, and hand the car back at the end. It's open to anyone who passes a credit check.
• Salary sacrifice runs through your employer. The cost comes out of your pre-tax salary, before Income Tax and National Insurance are taken. Because electric cars sit in a low Benefit-in-Kind band, what leaves your take-home pay is almost always less than leasing the same car yourself.

Whichever way you choose, you’ll get access to exclusive charging offers through Octopus. Check out the details if you’re comparing providers.

• Short local trips, and price is everything. The Dacia Spring.
• Five seats and a big boot for the least money. The Vauxhall Frontera Electric.
• The most range without spending £30,000. The Renault 5 E-Tech.
• The most equipment for the money. The Jaecoo E5.
• A lot of winter miles. The MG4 Urban, for that standard heat pump.
• Muddy boots, dogs and sports kit. The Ford Puma Gen-E, for the drainable front boot.
• The longest range and the quickest charging. The Leapmotor B10.

The Dacia Spring is the cheapest new electric car in the UK, starting at £11,990 which does about 100 miles of real-world range. The next cheapest car here is the Vauxhall Frontera Electric, at £22,495.

Yes, though you trade something for the price. Cheaper electric cars generally have smaller batteries, so you get less range, and slower acceleration. What you don't lose is low running costs. A £27,000 electric car charges at the same home rate as a £70,000 one.

Monthly lease costs depend on the car, the length of the agreement, your annual mileage and how much you pay up front. That means the cheapest car to buy isn't always the cheapest to lease. Check the current monthly figure on each car's page, since prices change and quotes expire.

Some do. The Electric Car Grant gives eligible new electric cars a discount of either £3,750 or £1,500, depending on the band. You don't apply for it yourself. The seller takes it off the price you pay. Eligibility changes, so check the current list before you order.

It varies more than you'd think. The Dacia Spring does about 100 miles of real-world range, while the Leapmotor B10 manages 220 miles. Most cars on this list sit somewhere in between. Cold weather and motorway speeds pull all of those figures down.