Best Electric Cars to Lease in 2026

How we picked these, and why it matters

Most “best electric cars” lists are written by brokers selling three and four year contracts, and they pad the bottom of the list with cars almost nobody leases — a Porsche or a Lotus, to make the page feel aspirational. Others rank on nought-to-sixty when you asked about a school run. This one is different in a way that is easy to check: every car below is on our fleet, and each entry says what the car is genuinely good at rather than pretending there is one winner.

There is no single best electric car. There is the cheapest to run in town, the one that does motorways without planning, the one that fits three children and a dog, and the one that makes a company driver’s tax bill look silly. Those are four different cars. So the honest structure is by use case.

Prices move weekly with term and mileage, so rather than quote figures that date, each car links to its own page where you can see what is on the fleet today and pick a term to get the current monthly cost.

Best small electric car to lease: Kia EV2

The Kia EV2 is the compact electric hatchback — a 61kWh battery, automatic, and sized for streets rather than motorways. It is the cheapest of the electric cars here to run, and the easiest to park, which between them cover most of what a second car or a city-based pool car is asked to do.

It suits short daily runs with a charge at home overnight. It is the one to avoid if your week involves regular long motorway journeys, because the smaller battery means more stops — take the EV4 instead. For two adults and two children on everyday journeys it is comfortable; for four adults and luggage on a long trip it is not.

Best value electric car to lease: MG4

The MG4 is the one that made the rest of the market look expensive, and it is still the keenest electric monthly we list. The Long Range version carries a 64kWh battery and 170kW, which is more performance than the price suggests and enough range for a normal working week.

It is the sensible answer if the monthly figure is the whole decision — pool cars, second cars, or a business testing whether electric works before spending more. The interior is not a German one, and you can tell, but nothing about it stops it doing the job.

Best electric car for motorway miles: Kia EV4

The Kia EV4 is the bigger electric hatchback, with an 81kWh battery that changes the character of the car entirely. Where the EV2 asks you to think about charging, the EV4 mostly does not — a long day’s driving becomes one stop rather than two.

This is the one for a company driver covering real distance, and the one to take if you are nervous about range and want the nervousness to go away. It is the most useful all-rounder here for someone with a mixed week of commuting and longer trips.

Best electric SUV to lease for a family: Ford Explorer

The Ford Explorer is Ford’s electric SUV — a 77kWh battery, 210kW, a high driving position and a boot that takes a buggy without negotiation. It is the obvious choice if the car has to do family life and you want to stop buying petrol.

It suits people who want an electric family car but do not want to find out the hard way whether one fits their life. Six months in it answers the charging question, the boot question and the range question at once, and if the answer is no you hand it back.

Best electric car for style: Cupra Tavascan

The Cupra Tavascan is the coupe-SUV, 77kWh and 210kW, and the car people on this list actually want rather than merely approve of. It shares its underpinnings with more sensible things and wears them better.

Take it if you want an electric car that does not feel like a compromise or an appliance. It is not the most practical shape here — the roofline costs you some rear headroom — but it is the one you will enjoy for six months.

Best electric flagship to lease: BYD Sealion 7

The BYD Sealion 7 is the most equipped car on this list for the money, with an 83kWh battery and a full-electric SUV body. BYD went from unknown to everywhere in about three years, and this is the car that explains why.

It suits a director who wants the Benefit-in-Kind rate of an electric car without the badge premium a German equivalent carries. And because BYD is still a newer brand here, a short term is the low-risk way to find out whether you like it — the residual value question is ours, not yours.

Best electric saloon to lease:BYD Seal

The BYD Seal is the electric saloon, and in Excellence AWD form it is genuinely quick — 390kW, 83kWh, quiet at motorway speed. It is the one for someone who does not want an SUV and has not been offered a serious alternative until recently.

It is a company-car choice above all. Directors take it for the tax position, and it makes the strongest case of anything here if your driving is longer runs and you charge at home or at the office.

Best premium electric car to lease: BMW i4

The BMW i4 Gran Coupe is the premium answer — eDrive40, 83.9kWh, and the only car here that drives the way BMW owners expect while running on electricity. It costs more per month than everything above it and it is worth it to the people who want it.

Take it if you would have leased a 3 Series and want to make the electric switch without giving anything up. It is also the easiest of these to hand to a sceptical driver, because nothing about it asks them to compromise.

The tax case, which is usually the whole decision

For a company driver the numbers are not close. The rate on a fully electric car rose from 3% to 4% in April 2026, and climbs a single point a year to 9% by 2029/30 — so it is going up, but slowly and predictably. A petrol equivalent is north of 30%. That gap is why most of the electric cars we place go on business agreements, and why a short term is such a cheap way to test the idea.

VAT is unchanged by the fact the car is electric — on a car available for private use, recovery on the hire charges is restricted to 50%, and on a van used for business it is generally 100%. There is more in our guide to VAT on lease cars. This is general guidance rather than tax advice, so check your own position.

Charging: the question that decides whether any of this works

A home charger changes the arithmetic more than the car you choose does. Charging at home overnight is where the saving actually lives. Relying on public rapid charging is convenient and expensive, and it can wipe out most of the running-cost advantage that made you look at an electric car in the first place.

So be honest about it before you pick a car. If you can charge at home or at work, any of the eight above will save you money against petrol. If you cannot, take a plug-in hybrid instead — the BYD Seal 6, Seal U and Sealion 5, the MG HS and ZS, or the Volvo XC90 all run on electricity for short journeys and petrol for long ones, with nothing to plan.

Real-world range is below the official figure on every electric car ever made, and noticeably below it on a cold motorway. Plan around the battery covering a long day with one stop rather than none, and none of these will let you down.

Short term or a three year lease?

Nearly everyone writing about leasing an electric car is selling a three or four year contract, so the question of whether you should commit that long to one never gets asked. It is worth asking.

A long lease gives you the lowest monthly figure, and if you already know an electric car fits your life it is the cheaper answer. The catch is that you are fixing four years of a technology that is still moving — batteries, charging networks and residual values have all shifted noticeably in the last two. Commit in 2026 and you are driving a 2026 car in 2030, having guessed your mileage for all four.

A short term costs more per month and answers a different question: does this actually work for me? Six months tells you whether your parking situation is a problem, whether the range suits your week, and whether you want the next one to be electric too. If the answer is yes, take the long lease then, knowing rather than hoping. If it is no, you have handed the car back instead of sitting with it until 2030. There is more on that trade-off in leasing against buying a car.

Why lease an electric car short term rather than buy one

Because the technology and the used market are both still moving, and neither of those is a risk you need to carry. Residual values on electric cars have been volatile; on a short term lease that volatility is priced across months rather than years, and you hand the car back regardless of what the market has decided by then.

And because you may be wrong. Plenty of people discover that an electric car suits them completely, and some discover that their parking situation makes it a nuisance. Finding that out over six months costs a fraction of finding it out over four years. There is more on that in the benefits of an electric car subscription, and if you are new to the whole idea, what a short term car subscription is covers the basics.

Terms run from a rolling month to eighteen months, with road tax, servicing, breakdown cover and delivery included. You add insurance and electricity. Every charge we can make is listed on our fees and charges page, and current stock and prices are on short term lease offers.

FAQs

What is the best electric car to lease in 2026?

There isn’t one — it depends what the car has to do. For town driving and the lowest running costs, the Kia EV2. For the keenest monthly figure, the MG4. For motorway distance, the Kia EV4. For a family, the Ford Explorer. For a company director, the BYD Seal or Sealion 7 on the tax case, or the BMW i4 if you want premium.

Which electric car has the best range for leasing?

Of the cars we hold, the larger batteries do the most useful mileage — the BYD Seal and Sealion 7 at 83kWh, the BMW i4 at 83.9kWh, and the Kia EV4 at 81kWh. Expect meaningfully less than the official figure on a cold motorway, and plan around one charging stop on a long day rather than none.

Is it cheaper to lease an electric car than a petrol one?

Per month, usually not — electric cars still cost more to lease than the petrol equivalent. Where they win is running costs and tax: a fully electric car sits at 4% Benefit-in-Kind for 2026/27 against north of 30% for petrol, and charging at home costs a fraction of petrol per mile. For a company driver that normally more than closes the gap.

Do you need a home charger to lease an electric car?

Not strictly, but it changes the maths more than the car you choose does. Charging at home overnight is where the saving comes from; relying on public rapid charging is expensive enough to cancel most of the advantage. If you can’t charge at home or at work, take a plug-in hybrid instead.

Can you lease an electric car for six months?

Yes — our terms run from a rolling month up to eighteen, and six is the most common length people take to find out whether an electric car suits them. Road tax, servicing, breakdown cover and delivery are included; you add insurance and electricity.

What Benefit-in-Kind do you pay on an electric lease car?

4% for 2026/27, rising in single steps to 9% by 2029/30 — against over 30% for a comparable petrol car. That is the single biggest reason electric cars go on business agreements, and it applies whether you call the arrangement a lease or a subscription.

Is charging included in an electric car lease?

No — electricity is yours to pay for, exactly as fuel would be. Road tax, servicing and maintenance, breakdown cover and free delivery and collection are inside the monthly figure; charging and insurance sit outside it.

Which electric cars can I lease right now?

Eight, across six makes: the Kia EV2 and EV4, the MG4, the Cupra Tavascan, the Ford Explorer, the BYD Seal and Sealion 7, and the BMW i4. Stock moves weekly, so check each make’s page for what is genuinely available today rather than relying on this list.

Should I lease an electric car short term or long term?

Long term is cheaper per month if you already know an electric car suits you — but it fixes four years of a technology that is still moving, and asks you to guess your mileage that far out. A short term costs more monthly and answers a different question: whether it works around your parking, your week and your charging. Most people are better off finding that out over six months and then committing, rather than the other way round.