Every electric car eligible for the Government's £1500 plug-in car grant

Since 2011, the UK Government has offered a grant to help with the cost of buying an electric car, but last year the amount you could receive was cut to £1500 from the previous figure of £2500.

The upper price limit for eligible vehicles was also reduced, so that only cars costing up to £32,000 were eligible.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of exciting electric cars that do, including some that have only just gone on sale. It's important to note, though, that not all trim levels of each car qualify for the grant, so it's worth checking before you decide to go ahead with any purchase.

Here we take a look at all 16 options and reveal which ones are worth considering. If any of them take your fancy, just use the relevant link to read our full review, or see how much you could save by using the free What Car? New Car Buying service.

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If ever a car was born for urban driving, it’s the new electric Fiat 500. It’s shorter than key rivals, so it can fit into spaces they can’t, while a tight turning circle, ultra-light steering and excellent visibility make it very easy to drive and manoeuvre. Just make sure you go for a version with the larger 42kWh battery if you want it to be suitable for longer journeys.

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Similarly brilliant to its hard-top sibling, the Fiat 500 Cabrio won our Convertible of the Year award in January 2021 – making it the first pure electric car to do so. Unlike its closest rival, the petrol-powered Mini Convertible, the 500 Cabrio doesn’t shudder or shake along bumpy roads. Just bear in mind that it carries a hefty price premium over the hard-top model: £2650 in our favoured Icon trim.

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Like the Honda E, the Mini Electric offers zippy performance and a retro aesthetic inside and out. However, it’s even less practical (you can’t have it with rear doors for starters) and the range is similarly measly, so it’s very much a second car.

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If you don’t want to shout about going electric, the e-208 could be just the thing – only the badging distinguishes it from its handsome internal combustion-engined counterparts. You get a comfortable ride and impressive refinement, while the quality of the interior shines through thanks to minimal use of scratchy plastics. Short drivers beware, though: the abnormally small steering wheel blocks the instruments in some seating positions.

Read our full Peugeot e-208 review >>

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Key to the Renault Zoe’s appeal is its range compared with rivals: officially between 238 and 245 miles depending on your motor of choice. Higher trim levels make these extra miles especially pleasant, delivering an elegant interior and punchy performance. Only a choppy ride and a recent zero star Euro NCAP safety rating give other rivals and the e-208 a significant advantage.

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The prototypical city car should lend itself well to electrification, but Smart’s execution is likely to leave you disappointed. Good acceleration at low speeds is marred by a bumpy ride and excessive noise, especially in the Cabrio. Cumbersome infotainment undermines the solid construction of the interior, while wheezy performance on faster roads and a 59-mile range in real-world testing further limit the Fortwo’s appeal. That said, no other car is quite as easy to park.

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The Forfour EQ is the physical manifestation of range anxiety, managing just 57 miles in our Real Range test. The ride jostles you around, too, and as you pick up speed there’s enough road roar to make you think you’re taxiing a 747. True, a tight turning circle and low cost make it serviceable as a city runabout, but if you want that, why not get the cheaper and more manoeuvrable Fortwo instead, given that the extra seats of the Fourfour are extremely cramped?

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Despite being closely related to the Peugeot e-208, the Corsa-e has its own distinct character. For starters, the normal sized steering wheel doesn’t block the instruments in the way that the 208’s can, plus the Corsa sacrifices a bit of comfort for slightly sharper handling. It’s nowhere near as classy as the 208 inside, though.

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With many new electric cars arriving on the scene, the e-Up is still a decent option for zipping around town. It's also great to drive, easy to park, and also has a good electric range – but if you do more than just urban driving, there are better and more usable options out there.

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If you want to mix the stylish looks of a coupé-SUV with the green credentials of electric power, then the e-C4 is well worth looking at. It can cover up to 217 miles officially between charges, and impresses with a comfortable ride and a good quality interior. It's not as roomy as some rivals, though.

Read our full Citroën e-C4 review >>

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Lively performance, great equipment and long warranties (eight years or 125,000 miles for the batteries alone) make the Kona Electric an attractive buy. The ride can be choppy, though, and it’s a pity you have to make do with the smaller battery option if you want the grant. This version of the car managed only 158 miles in our real-world test, compared with the 259 miles of pricier Konas.

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The MX-30 is something of a rolling paradox: it’s a big car with rear passenger space only a contortionist could enjoy, while its 124-mile official range binds it to urban use, where it feels too large to be truly at home. However, it does provide an enjoyable ride and handling balance, while the interior features interesting materials and an infotainment system that’s refreshingly easy to operate.

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You have to put up with artificial steering and a rather bouncy ride, but you might be tempted to, because the ZS EV is very well-priced and offers a vast amount of passenger and boot space. Acceleration is swift enough, too, and brake pedal feel is far more consistent than it is in many electric cars, making it easy to drive the ZS EV smoothly in stop-start traffic.

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The Korando comes with an impressive array of standard safety kit, and even by the standards of other SUVs is very practical. It's also cheap to buy and, if you go for this fully electric version, cheap to run. The offset driving position won't suit everyone, though.

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With an official range of up to 201 miles between charges, and looks which should have no trouble getting you noticed, there's plenty to like about Vauxhall's electric small SUV. It's comfortable and impressively quiet at speed, and comes loaded with kit, but rivals have longer ranges and nicer interiors.

Read our full Vauxhall Mokka-e review >>

The Berlingo was already an impressively practical and comfortable people carrier, but by making it electric Citroën has broadened its appeal even more. With an official range of up to 174 miles, even longer trips need not be out of bounds, while its performance rivals regular petrol-engined versions of the Berlingo. The infotainment system is fiddly, though.

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If the electric Citroën Berlingo on the previous slide doesn't have enough seats for your family, then the e-Spacetourer is the next logical step. It can seat eight people inside, and although it has a poor range compared with rivals, and its interior quality could be better in places, it's hard to argue too much with that impressive practicality.

Read our full Citroën e-Spacetourer review >>

The Ioniq is available as a hybrid, as a plug-in hybrid and as a fully electric car, but it's only the latter version which qualifies for the Government grant these days. It's nice inside, and offers the kind of zippy performance and low running costs which you'd expect from an electric car, but limited rear-seat headroom and an unsettled ride around town count against it.

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On paper, the MG 5 appears to be great value for money. It provides far more range than the similarly priced 40kWh Nissan Leaf, goes from 0-62mph faster than the vastly more expensive Renault Zoe and offers more space for families than both those rivals. The absence of important safety systems such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) makes it hard to recommend over the similarly priced MG ZS EV, though.

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You're not exactly spoilt for choice if you’re looking for a seven-seat electric car, but the van-based e-NV200 is one such model. Unfortunately, those van origins are all too obvious, not only in the way it looks, but also in the way the back end of the ‘car’ skips and crashes over bumps when you haven’t filled it with people. The range is small, too.

Read our full Nissan e-NV200 review >>

While the original Leaf instantly antiquated its predecessors in 2010, the current second-generation offering now feels off the pace. A similarly priced Volkswagen ID.3 can do a lot more miles on a single charge despite having a smaller battery than the range-topping Leaf, while the comfier 40kWh car – which only managed 128 miles of range in real-world tests – is trounced by the Peugeot e-208 in the ride quality stakes. Nonetheless, class-leading boot space and swathes of standard equipment make the 40kWh Leaf a good value proposition.

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The e-Rifter shares its underpinnings with the e-Berlingo we've already seen, so it shares many of the same attributes as that car. It's impressively practical, then, and has the same 170-mile range between charges, plus it comes with lots of safety kit. The infotainment system can be fiddly to use, though, and Peugeot's i-Cockpit design, which has you looking over a small steering wheel to see the instruments rather than through it, won't suit everyone.

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If you think the Combo-e Life looks eerily similar to the Peugeot e-Rifter and the Citroen e-Berlingo, then that's because it is – in fact, all three cars share the same underpinnings, electric motor and battery. That means the Combo-e Life has the same range of around 170 miles, and the same thoroughly practical interior.

Read our full Vauxhall Combo-e Life review >>

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Need to fit lots of bums on seats but also want to go electric? The Vauxhall Vivaro-e Life could be for you. Its range isn't the best, at just 143 miles between charges according to official tests, but it does offer flexible seating and sprightly acceleration around town.

Read our full Vauxhall Vivaro-e Life review >>

The Volkswagen ID.3 is our favourite small electric car. Why? Well, Pure Performance models – the only ones eligable for the grant – have a good range of up to 217 miles between charges, as well as offering sprightly performance around town. Go for our recommended Life trim, and it's also surprisingly well equipped.

Read our full Volkswagen ID.3 review >>

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