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Here are 13 of the best electric cars you can buy for under £50k
Picking the right one can be tricky - fortunately Top Gear is here to help
Renault Scenic
From: £35,495
Power: up to 217bhp
Range: up to 379 milesIt may have morphed from MPV to SUV (boo), but the Scenic is still overflowing with practicality. Renault is doing the EV underbits especially well these days, which means impressive efficiency too. Add to that an intuitive Google-powered interface and you have one of the most complete family cars on sale today.
Advertisement - Page continues belowKia EV3
From: £33,055
Power: up to 201bhp
Range: up to 375 milesBig range used to be reserved for big cars. No longer. The EV3 is perhaps the smallest EV capable of 300 miles in the real world, while its quirky styling shows everyone at the school gate you’ve not forsaken being cool in the name of parenting. Need more space? Look into EV4, 5 or 6. They’re all brilliant.
Skoda Elroq
From: £33,560
Power: up to 201bhp
Range: up to 260 milesSkoda is wiping the floor with parent company VW of late, persistently making better electric cars from the same bits, and the Elroq is the of the bunch. About as thrilling as ironing your trousers, but unspeakably useful.
Advertisement - Page continues belowHyundai Inster
From: £23,755
Power: up to 97bhp
Range: up to 203 milesLike a shrunken ID. Buzz, the Inster asks “what is the most interior space a car of a certain size can possibly give you?” and produces spectacular results. There are six figure SUVs with less room in the back. Impressively refined for its size and major bonus points for the optional houndstooth upholstery.
Renault 5
From: £21,495
Power: up to 148bhp
Range: up to 255 milesA triumph of design that backs its style up with substance. Easy to live with, more comfortable than it has any right to be, remarkably efficient and a hoot to drive. An EV so good even your climate change-denying uncle wants one. Cramped rear seats, but…
Renault 4
From: £23,445
Power: up to 148bhp
Range: up to 250 miles… just get one of these if that’s an issue for you. It’s the same car underneath, just with a bigger boot and more space in the back. The retro design perhaps doesn’t stick the landing quite as neatly as the 5, but it’s still superb, and minimal added weight means the same excellent efficiency.
Tesla Model Y
From: £41,990
Power: up to 370bhp
Range: up to 387 milesRecent sales have been hurt by the CEO’s, ahem, divisive extra-curricular activities. Which is a shame because the latest iterations of Y and 3 are Tesla’s best cars yet. Perceived quality and ride comfort are much improved, while range and efficiency remain top notch. Just be a bit careful with how you choose to thank other road users.
Advertisement - Page continues belowFiat Grande Panda
From: £20,995
Power: up to 111bhp
Range: up to 199 milesIn a sea of slightly samey Stellantis EVs (try saying that five times), the Grande Panda shines. Which is great because it’s the cheapest of the lot. An unpretentious box elevated by great design (same bloke who did the R5) and fun touches like bamboo bits on the dash. You can even have it on white steelies. As you should all cars.
Polestar 2
From: £45,160
Power: up to 416bhp
Range: up to 408 milesRazor sharp design outside, beautifully finished, wonderfully Swedish cabin inside. A car that makes you seem interesting, at least until you start banging on about your manually adjustable dampers.
Advertisement - Page continues belowMG4
From: £29,995
Power: up to 201bhp
Range: up to 281 milesStill the pound for pound value king of EVs. Impressively spacious, great range and good to drive. Probably the car we’d all buy if we were rational creatures. Just don’t expect Rolls-Royce quality on the inside, and steer clear of the absurd 400bhp XPower.
Kia PV5 Passenger
From: £32,995
Power: up to 160bhp
Range: up to 256 milesAt least nine tenths of an ID. Buzz for comfortably ten grand less. Ingenious modular construction will spawn many versions. Lack of heritage means it perhaps won’t appeal as a big family car to the same extent as the VW, but then again, maybe it will. Because it’s comfortably ten grand less.
Volvo EX30
From: £33,060
Power: up to 422bhp
Range: up to 295 milesA boxy little Volvo that can smoke a base 911 pulling away from a set of lights? What a time to be alive. Interior leans hard on sustainable materials and does so with real flair. The clearly Tesla-inspired approach to UX is less well executed and will make you swear occasionally. And then probably beep at you for doing so.
Hyundai Ioniq 5
From: £39,995
Power: up to 321bhp
Range: up to 315 milesAside from binging and bonging a lot (as all modern cars do but Korean ones especially), a near flawless family car. Comfortable, hugely spacious and littered with thoughtful touches like a little magnetic dash pad to decorate with your kids’ rubbish drawings. Somehow we’re still getting our heads round how much bigger it is compared to how it looks in photos.
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