Affordable price and high quality: the best budget electric cars in 2025

Environmental friendliness, efficiency, innovation, and comfort make electric cars the best choice for those who care about the environment and want to use advanced technologies. Electric cars are equipped with the most advanced technologies: autonomous driving systems, remote control functions, and a high level of safety.

Although electric vehicles may have a higher initial cost, they are much cheaper to operate. TopSpeed has published a rating of the best electric cars on the market at an affordable price.

Nissan Leaf

Initial suggested retail price: $28,140.

Since the launch of the first generation in 2010, the Nissan Leaf has enjoyed a reputation as the most popular electric vehicle in the world, selling a total of 450,000 units. This record was broken by Tesla in 2020. To this day, the Nissan Leaf is highly regarded as one of the flagships that defied expectations and succeeded in mass-marketing electric vehicles.

In its current iteration, the Nissan Leaf is equipped with a larger 60 kWh lithium-ion battery and a more powerful 215 horsepower engine compared to the first generation. However, this powertrain is only available in the top trim, while the base model has a smaller 40 kWh battery and 147 horsepower. As a result, the Leaf's range lags behind the industry standard, offering only 241 km and 346 km in the improved configuration. In addition, the Leaf's reliance on the outdated CHAdeMo charging standard limits charging infrastructure and overall usability.

The car has adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, and lane departure assist, as well as emergency autonomous braking. The infotainment screen is also much more modern with an eight-inch touchscreen display, Android Auto, Apple Carplay, and 360° cameras. In terms of price, the Leaf is currently the cheapest electric car on the market.

Fiat 500e

Initial suggested retail price: $32,500.

The new Fiat 500e, with its 118-horsepower electric motor, receives its power from a battery pack. The car has a range of 249 km, although Stellantis says that in practice the range is longer if the Fiat 500e is limited to city streets rather than highways.

The 500e is equipped with a large 10.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system that runs Uconnect 5 software, which is native to all modern Stellantis products. The car has adaptive cruise control, wireless charging for smartphones, autonomous braking, lane-keeping assist, and even blind spot monitoring.

Hyundai Kona Electric

Initial suggested retail price: $32,875.

The Hyundai Kona Electric is an electric vehicle designed for buyers who are on a budget but still want style, capability, and practicality. The Hyundai Kona Electric was not designed to be an ICE-powered car before it received an electric powertrain. Instead, Hyundai flipped the script by first developing the Kona Electric and then adapting the chassis to the powertrain.

The car has 133 horsepower in the base configuration, or 201 horsepower in the top trims. The electric motor is powered by a 48.6 kWh battery or a 64.8 kWh extended range battery, giving the Kona Electric a maximum range of 420 km.

Ford Mustang Mach-E

Initial suggested retail price: $36,495.

Since its launch in 2019, the Mustang Mach-E has sold as well as the Ford Mustang, making it one of the most successful electric vehicles on the market. Until the beginning of February 2025, the starting price of the Mach-E was $39,995, but now it has dropped by $3,500.

The Mach-E is equipped with rear-wheel drive in the basic Select trim with 264 horsepower. Buyers can choose an all-wheel drive system in Premium Extended Battery, GT, or Rally trims with output ranging from 480 horsepower in GT and Rally trims to 272 horsepower in the Premium Extended Battery model. Mach-E offers two battery options: a 73 kWh battery pack for rear-wheel drive models, which provides a range of up to 420 km, and a larger 88 kWh or 91 kWh battery pack for all-wheel drive models, which provides a range of up to 515 km in the Premium Extended Battery model. The GT model has a range of 450 km, while the Rally model offers 426 km.

The Mach-E features a huge 15.5-inch vertical display that simultaneously serves as the infotainment system and climate control, vehicle settings, and navigation. It also includes Android Auto and Apple Carplay as part of Ford Sync 4A. Other modern amenities include a wireless charging pad, a memory driver's seat, and a Ford Co-Pilot 360.

Hyundai Ioniq 6

Initial suggested retail price: $37,750.

The Ioniq 6 can go up to 550 km in the rear-wheel drive variant, but the lowest range for the AWD layout is still 434 km – these figures are about 80 km more than the Ioniq 5. The Ioniq 6 is more aerodynamically efficient as a low-slung sedan.

Inside, the Ioniq 6 is equipped with a frontal collision mitigation system, rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, lane departure and hold assist, level 1 highway assistant and parking sensors, and a 12.3-inch center touchscreen display with Android Auto and Apple Carplay.

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