EVs no longer make a statement, they're just better cars

Think back to the first electric car you saw parked on your street around a decade ago and consider your first impression. 

Were your neighbours eco-warriors keen to reduce their carbon footprint? Or tech-fanatics that always needed the latest iPhone and saw EVs as the next big thing? Early EV buyers came with the desire – and finances – to make these statements, and many brands were happy to go along with this. Just think about how keen Volkswagen was to make everyone know the ID.3 you replaced your Golf with was electric. 

Well in 2026, you no longer need to make a statement to jump into an EV, because right here, right now, they’re just better cars. In terms of the actual product, new models such as the BMW iX3 and Renault Twingo help prove that across the whole spectrum, cars as diverse as premium SUVs and city cars are now best served with an electric powertrain. 

Starting with price, arguably the biggest road block, we’ve now broadly reached parity. A petrol or plug-in hybrid BMW X3 with a similar specification to the new iX3 is no cheaper; and taking into account comparative power figures, an X5 M50 with 392bhp is actually around £15,000 more expensive than the 462bhp iX3 50xDrive. 

It’s the same further down the tree, too, because Renault’s new Twingo is expected to cost from “well under £20,000”; a Toyota Aygo X hybrid starts at £21,645. 

Also, thanks to considerable advances, many EVs are more refined, just as good to drive and better engineered than their petrol-powered counterparts.

Yes, some will still stumble when it comes to range and charging speed. The public charging network is much better than it used to be, but there’s still work to do. Yet for the majority of owners who have a driveway, home charging on a cheap overnight tariff is by far the least expensive way to travel per mile. 

For those in the city or without off-street parking, more low-speed, low-cost public charging is what’s required, and it’ll come. But it’s not the issue it once was – ask me what it was like to charge an e-Golf somewhere in North London in 2018. Things are very different now.

So yes, EVs are still (largely) better for the environment, and feature more advanced embedded technology. But in 2026, the only reason anyone needs to make the switch to EVs is that they are a better product across the board.

Did you know you can sell your car with Auto Express? Get the highest bid from our network of over 5,500 dealers and we'll do the rest. Click here to try Auto Express Sell My Car now...