EV megatest | Which electric £40k car is best?

If you're in the market for a family-friendly EV, costing up to £40,000, which means you can have one on your driveway for around £100 a week given how most people buy cars, your options have never been broader.

There are more than two dozen such cars on the market today. These are the best 12 of them.

We have competitors from: BYD, Cupra, Hyundai, Jeep, kia, MG, Renault, Smart, Tesla, Vauxhall, Volkswagen And Volvo ready to face off as we name Britain’s best sub-£40k electric car.

On the way we will talk about their prices but also finance deals because that’s how most customers buy cars, and unless otherwise stated assuming a deposit of £4000, likely from a trade in. At the end there’ll be a big chart outlining all of those details, correct as of April 2024 when we conducted the test.

00:00 Introduction
01:19 BYD Dolphin
03:23 Cupra Born
06:05 Hyundai Kona EV
08:10 Jeep Avenger
09:58 Kia Niro
11:25 MG4
13:20 Renault Megane E
14:53 Smart #1
16:50 Tesla Model 3
20:17 Vauxhall Astra Electric
21:43 Volkswagen ID3
22:56 Volvo EX30
25:36 The finishing positions, 12th to 3rd
27:08 The podium positions
27:43 Outro
27:56 Finance summary

[jaker]

Six dudes picking the best "family friendly" EV. Never once mentioned boot space and glossing over things that are important for families like practically and space. Here's an idea why not bring your families along to these tests with your weekly shopping, child seats/boosters, strollers, kids scooters, school bags etc and THEN pick the best "family friendly" EV. Your test as it is has limited usefulness for anyone choosing a "family friendly" EV.

[Dermo]

Given his comments on the Avenger how did it ever win car of the year without it being a paid for accolade??? Funkiness? Are you kidding me!?! He basically said it was meh in every aspect 😂 who paid enough to win this group test I’m not at the end yet!?

[decisionsdecisions]

Why is the cupra so high up rather than the id3 you said about the info screen and software but is it not the same in the cupra

[wass]

Why did jeep win car of the year? Purely on funkiness?

[timvinall]

I have a Cupra Born V3 picked it up for £27000, 9 months old with 3000 miles, top spec with beats audio sound system and a Pan Roof, absolutely love it !!

[LaceyFilm]

The comments on these EV videos are embarrassing.
I don't see all of the EV drivers going onto ICE videos making unresearched statements about how crap they are.
People are allowed to choose whatever car they want; there's no point in going around telling them they're wrong.

[DryUrEyesMate]

If you want a reliable trustworthy EV I highly recommend the Tesla the reason for this is that our local taxi firm use Tesla and one of them has hit over 400, 000 miles and it’s still going strong

[bruts]

Have to say I was completely anti ev for the past 3 years, have a few at work and they are terrible, but the wife picked up a born 77kwh with only a few thousand kilometres on it, and I seriously can’t fault it.
Most I’ve seen on the read out is 512km on a good day and least 412km.
We have a charger at home from a gte golf but after 2 months of ownership we’ve only charge it once of the solar. And most charges are done at her workplace. Just for context 199 euro on pcp and she swapped out of a Gti that was costing 350 a month on fuel.
Have to say these cars used correctly, locally and the odd medium long journey are so efficient of the use of terrain and coasting and regen they make perfect sense in a 2 car family.
I would urge anyone to trial one for an extended period and actually realise how hard it actually is the run down the battery

[cp]

6000 miles a year to make the PCP deal look cheaper is a little disingenuous, the average is about 7400 I think and most people buying a family car will drive considerably more. This would also make the insurance look cheaper too. Maybe redo prices with mileage of 10000 miles to be more representative of the PCP deals that families would need.

[mikadavies]

Why is tge Tesla Model 3 £600+ per month in UK and $299/mth in America.... The monthly payments are just a total deal breaker for me.

[Brightsparks]

I agree with your comment about retaining buttons for some of the more regular adjustments made by drivers (eg heating) BUT most manufacturers - Vovlo included - allow a simple voice command "set temperature to 20 degrees" as an alterantive. I use this on my XC40 as it is simpler that looking away to adjust any control buttons or sliders.

[therealjpster]

A shame not to see the Citroën e-C4. I just bought one and it’s ace. Absurdly comfortable over potholes and has very polite and discreet lane keep assist. Radar cruise and hands-on auto steer works well on the motorway. And it has proper stalks and buttons and rotary controls for the AC. Over 1000 miles of commute and highway we’ve done 4.0 miles/kWh, which is much better than our old MG5 (and MG customer service was terrible and I’m very happy to leave them behind). I put £500 down and pay £350 a month at 0% for 10kpa/4 years.

[alastairhatt]

New updates have addressed the wipers with a new update to use the left scroll button as a small menu pops up to adjust speed options etc. indicators you do get used too and yes you do second guess sometimes but you soon work it out if it’s the only car you drive.

[dannycolverson]

The worst thing about the indicators on the Tesla is that the buttons are flat/smooth, if they at least stuck out or has some texture you would be able to indicate without looking at them. Absolutely shocking that it's allowed. It's a shame because the rest of the car is literally awesome.

[hivewatch]

Some men picking their favourite cars with no reference to their family. This looks like a mid life crisis round-up where the Cupra wins on style and the men wish they didn't have kids.

[agravityman]

I've got the Mégane, the spec above and to answer all the "oh it's expensive" I got mine for £374pm with £3400 deposit, 10, 000 miles for 48m. This was back in summer 23, so before the whole ZEV mandate. Walk into any showroom now wanting to get a deal and you'll get a mega one, otherwise brands face a £15, 000 fine per ever ICE told above the target. Not to mention it costs me £6.20 for a full charge at home. So much cheaper than an equivalent ICE from a TCO perspective

[ARCTCT-]

VW certainly got their money's worth with this review!!!

[chiravalentin]

I just think that the comments in the video about price of the Tesla are not very fair. Bring all the other on the same specs as the Tesla and all of them will be more expensive.

[beatlessale]

Half of these you could probably pick up at 2-3 years at half price or more (from main dealers) so if I was in the market for a cheap EV for work to back for example, which for a lot of people is 90% of the usage, that is what I would do.

[animal]

How many families can realistically afford any 40 grand car, it baffles me.