Excellent all-round electric city cars

If you often find yourself in the heart of a city and are thinking about an electric car to avoid ULEZ fines, there are a few things to consider.

You may need extra passenger space, require particular luggage capacity or want something easy to park and manoeuvre. Here’s our pick of all-round electric city cars.

Fiat 500e

The Fiat 500 has been a popular city car choice for a while and the introduction of the electric makes it an ideal candidate. Upon its release in 2024, only one option will be available, a 117bhp with a 32.3kWh battery which gives 199 miles. Inside, it’ll take three passengers and it has a cargo capacity of 185 litres. Prices start from $30,000.

Jeep Avenger

It may sport the Jeep name and look large in photographs, but the Avenger sits below the Renegade and comes in at just under 4.1m in length and roughly 1.7m in width.

Prices are to start around $30,000, and you get 248 miles of range, a 24min fast charge from 20-80 percent at 100kWh and a 156bhp motor. It comes with rear parking sensors as standard and its boot will manage 355 litres. 

Mini Electric

The Mini Electric retains the Mini heritage: it’s small with its 3.8m length and 1.7m width, presents a Cooper S-rivalling 181bhp, and it’s swift around town thanks to its tight chassis.

The range is claimed to be 114 miles and boot space comes in at 211 litres, but by folding the seats flat, you get a significant rise to 731 litres. There are three versions of the Mini Electric to choose from, each with a varying level of tech: the base $30,900 Classic, the $34,225 Signature and the range-topping $36,700 Iconic.

Mazda MX-30

Its low roof line and 4.4m SUV-like footprint show that the MX-30 doesn’t really know which category it belongs to. However, it rides well over bumpy streets and the 92-mile range is perfectly suited to city driving. Mazda has since discontinued the MX-30 but used cars start from $26,000.

There are 366 litres of usable boot space which jumps to 1,171 with the seats folded.  

Hyundai Ioniq 5

Another quirky car to join our list is the Ioniq 5, starting from $42,785. There are four options to choose from: SE Standard Range, SE, SEL and Limited. Depending on your needs, there’re choices of two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive (from SE on) across the range, and 220-mile and 303-mile batteries.

The standard tech list is impressive, including LED lighting all-round, blind-spot assist, parking distance warning and rear-view monitoring with dynamic parking guidance. Outside, it measures 4.6m in length and just under 1.9m in width, making it one of the biggest cars on our list. However, you get 527 litres of boot space, expanding to 1,587 litres after dropping the rear seats. 

BMW i3

While no longer offered by BMW as a new car, a used i3 can be picked up for just $10,300. What you get in return is a four-seater with a 170bhp motor and a claimed 153-mile range, you can also opt for the range extender to cure range anxiety; this incorporates a small 647cc scooter-derived engine which bumps the range to 200 miles. 

Nissan Leaf

Ending our list is the Leaf — a great way to break into electric city car ownership. It measures 4.4m in length and around 1.8m in width, has a generous 435-litre boot and a 148bhp on tap. The entry-level ‘S’ starts from $28,140 which gets you a 40kWh battery and a 111-mile range.

You’ll also get rear-cross traffic alert, blind spot detection, a rear-view camera, 360-degree camera and moving object detection.