Best small electric cars in 2025

The MINI Cooper Electric is the epitome of modern, desirable small electric cars. As a MINI, it's already off to a great start thanks to all that brand heritage, looks, and buyers kinda knowing what to expect long before they've even signed on the dotted line.

It's true, the MINI Cooper Electric is very much like any other MINI, but it's also got all the benefits of an EV car. That means nifty performance, superb refinement, and you can zip about town or further afield in the knowledge there's nothing harmful being emitted from the car. According to MINI, that can be up to 249 miles on a charge, though 200 is more realistic.

Also like a lot of MINI models, the ride of the Electric is on the firm side, but this brings excellent handling. You'll find the cabin is a little more cramped than most superminis. But you know what? We don't care, because, well, just look at it. This is a car where heart, head, and wallet all come together and say "buy it".

When the MINI Cooper Electric that we were just talking about first arrived, there was nothing in the small EV market that could get anywhere near it for fun, desirability and sheer want-one factor. And then, Renault came up with this, the awesome Renault 5, and just like that, the MINI no longer had things all its own way.

And like the MINI, the 5 uses nostalgia to amp up the desirability all the way up to 11. It uses many lines and design touches that are appealingly faithful to the original Renault 5 of the seventies and eighties, but all presented in a thorough modern and handsome way. The same goes for the interior, but it also features all the latest tech that buyers demand, plus a fairly plush feel.

Granted, it's pretty tight in the back seats, just like the MINI with which it does battle, but it does have the edge on boot space, with 326 litres to the MINI's 210 litres. It'll also go fractionally further on a charge, with an official WLTP range figure of 252 miles to the MINI's 249 miles. Okay, so it's not quite as fun to drive as the MINI, but it's still very good on that score, and has a more comfortable ride.

Even compared to the desirable little EVs we've just been talking about, the Jeep Avenger is one seriously cool car. It looks the business thanks to the rugged, no-nonsense styling typical of the Jeep brand, with trademark features like boxy bodywork and the seven-slot grille. The interior doesn't dazzle for practicality or quality, but it has vibrant splashes of colour that help the car feel unerringly cheery.

It's an enjoyable car to drive, too. It rides comfortably, especially at low urban speeds, and it has enough pace to exploit gaps in city traffic. It feels zippy and manoeuvrable in town -  thanks partly to its small dimensions, flat sides and good visibility - and the handling remains tidy at higher speeds.

Official figures put the Avenger's range at 244 miles, which is more than enough for you to use it outside the city if you wish, but Jeep says you'll get a lot more than that figure if you confine yourself to urban use.

While all the cars we've considered so far use retro styling and nostalgia to pull at the heartstrings, the Hyundai Inster couldn't look more modern and futuristic if it were designed by NASA and built by aliens. The unconventional exterior lighting designs - some large and circular, others pixelated and presented in strips - give a very unique look, especially when combined with the tall, boxy bodywork.

That body work has another function, too, because once you climb inside the Inter, you'll find that there's  a massively generous amount of room in all of the four seats, although do note that there are only four, rather than five. The boot is a bit small at 238 litres, but you can boost this to 351 litres by sacrificing some of your generous rear kneeroom by using the sliding rear seats.

Granted, the Inster isn't the cheapest of the small EVs, but it comes packed with big-car features to help justify the price, and the interior is as plush and as colourful as it is roomy. It's an absolute doddle to drive in town, too, and also feels nice and stable at motorway speeds.

The Peugeot e-208 is far from the smallest electric car in this list, but it's hardly a Range Rover is it? It's certainly dinky enough for the cut and thrust of urban life, but unlike some cars here, it has an air of style and luxury for a compact hatchback. 

The striking exterior design can be had with cool-looking 'fang' LED lights and other nice details. But the premium feel doesn't stop with the outside, as the e-208 has a surprisingly upmarket interior, particularly on top trims.

It's roomier than many other cars here, with higher levels of standard equipment available. Prefer a more subtle design and simpler (albeit duller) interior? The Vauxhall Corsa-e and the updated Corsa Electric share their mechanical bits with the e-208.

On the road, the Peugeot e-208 feels heavier and less agile than some of the other best small electric cars. The upsides of that include better refinement, a more comfortable ride and plenty of performance. You also get a very respectable range of up to 225 miles on versions with the 136PS powertrain, or 248 miles with the updated 156PS powertrain that was introduced alongside the less powerful one during the 2024 facelift.

Fiat struck gold with the original Fiat 500 (well, the first modern one) when it arrived back in 2008, with its cheeky retro design proving a hit with those looking for a classy city car. Fast-forward to 2021, and the latest iteration of the Fiat 500 became an electric-only model. 

The Fiat 500 Electric is a touch larger than the original car, but it's still one of the smallest cars on the road at only 3.6m long, while it comes with the choice of two batteries. The entry-level model (which has since been discontinued as a new car) is equipped with a modest 24kWh battery that delivers a claimed range up to 118 miles, which is less than ideal. There's also a 42kWh battery pack that stretches the Fiat 500's range up to 199 miles. It can also be fast-charged to 80% of full battery power in 30 minutes (you'll need to be using a fast charging public station to achieve this, though). 

Fiat's refined the design of the 500 for 2021, which is also available as a soft-top cabriolet, so it's one of the few electric cars that allows you to have the roof down. There are three trim levels to pick from: Action, Passion and Icon. The entry-level model doesn't have a touchscreen, instead requiring you to connect your smartphone, while the top of the range model sports a large 10.0-inch touchscreen. 

Ora remains an unfamiliar name the UK, but the brand is an offshoot of Great Wall, a Chinese manufacturer that's been making vehicles for decades. This particular car was named the Funky Cat when it was first launched in the UK, but it seems the British public couldn't put up with such a dingbat title, so it's since been rechristened as the 03, a name that couldn't be any duller if it tried. By any name, it's a solid little electric car, with excellent safety ratings, loads of equipment included as standard and decent space inside.

It's also impressively affordable, which allows it take on other value-for-money electric cars like the MG4 and the BYD Dolphin, as well as more expensive alternatives like the MINI Electric. There are of course some compromises for the money, including a relatively short battery range of 193 miles. And, while it's spacious in the back, it's got a small boot, and it's not particularly fun to drive, either.

The 03's looks and a very attractive price mean we can forgive many of its shortcomings.

The Mazda MX-30 is something of an oddball. It's a small SUV with a small battery range, although the addition of a range-extender model to the, er, range provides an interesting alternative to traditional plug-in hybrid rivals. It's a car that certainly won't be for everyone, but it nevertheless has much to recommend it, especially as a used car.

With a battery range of just 124 miles, the MX-30 simply can't live with the many hundreds of miles that some rivals can boast. However, this small capacity helps to keep costs down, and if it's a problem for you, the range extender model has a tiny petrol engine: not to drive the wheels, but solely to recharge the battery. It'll cover about 50 miles before the engine steps in to help out, and unlike many PHEVs, you can fast-charge it at public chargers to top up.

Both models are fun to drive, with direct steering, and the interior is just lovely, with classy materials, an easy-to-use infotainment system and a great seating position. The rear doors are hinged at the back, which is an interesting talking point, although not particularly practical. We'd rather think of this as a quirky, very likeable city SUV for two.

Is the Citroen Ami the coolest car we've seen in the last few years? Maybe not. But it'll get you noticed more than any supercar in town.

It's not just the unusual, funky design that draws people's eyes, but also the size of it. At barely more than 2.4m long and under 1.4m wide, it makes a Smart ForTwo look bulky. It's a doddle to drive, and turns on a sixpence. It's perfect for the city, then, which is just as well because it's utterly useless outside town: it'll only do 28mph and has a maximum range of 47 miles on a charge.

There's plenty of other compromises, too. For starters, it isn't technically a car, meaning it doesn't have to obey any crash safety regulations. With two seats and almost nothing in the way of equipment except seats and a heater, it makes every other car in this list look luxurious. Yet, it only costs from around £8,000 and unlike a bicycle or a scooter it has a roof, windows, and more protection from bad drivers.

The Vauxhall Corsa Electric was first launched in the UK as the Corsa-e, but when the car was facelifted in 2023, and received the same cool front-end styling as more recent models in the Vauxhall range, it also received a new name.

That wasn't all. Alongside the existing 136PS electric powertrain that was good for a range of 222 miles, a slightly pokier one was added with 156PS and a slightly bigger battery for an extended range of 246 miles. Much more like it

Those powertrains, plus everything else that lies under the rather conservative bodywork, are shared with other Stellantis-Group electric cars such as the flamboyant Peugeot e-208 and DS 3, not to mention the Jeep Avenger and Fiat 600e. Most of them are fairly interchangeable in most areas, so just pick the one you like the look of most, and which suits your budget.