Personal Shopper: hybrid or electric?
Want a new car but don't know where to start? Just send us your criteria and we'll give our new and used car choices, and tell you how much we can save you...
Buying new
- Our recommended choices: Kia e-Niro 150kW First Edition
- List price: £36,495 (not including gov't grant)
- Target Price: £36,495
If you're thinking of going electric, what better place to start than with our reigning Car of the Year, the Kia e-Niro? This is an electric family SUV, so it has much of the practicality and space you admired in the Volvo XC40 yet will cost you a fraction of the price to run. And although Target Price discounts are slim, the Government's £3500 electric vehicle grant makes quite a dent in the e-Niro's price tag.
It's not just practicality or running costs where the e-Niro shines, either, because it can also travel for up to 253 miles between charges in real-world conditions. So, given that you mostly drive in and around town, you could only have to charge it up once per week – and thanks to your solar panels, that charging should be almost free.
The e-Niro is a great package, then, and sweetening the deal is the fact that it's backed up by Kia's market-leading seven-year warranty.
Find a great Kia e-Niro deal or read our full e-Niro review
- Also consider: Hyundai Ioniq 1.6 GDi Hybrid Premium SE
- List price: £27,005
- Target Price: £27,005
If you're not ready to go fully electric just yet, consider the Hyundai Ioniq, which won the Hybrid Car of the Year title at the most recent What Car? Awards. It features a 1.6-litre petrol engine working in conjunction with a small electric motor, meaning you can travel on electric power alone for short distances. And if you want to upgrade the electric portion of your car at a later date, the Ioniq is also available as a plug-in hybrid and as a fully electric car.
Find a great Hyundai Ioniq deal or read our full Ioniq review
- Also consider: Skoda Octavia Estate 1.5 TSI SE L DSG
- List price: £25,590
- Target Price: £23,124
If space were the only factor by which we were measuring your new car choice, the Skoda Octavia Estate would win hands down. It's simply cavernous, so whether you're packing it up for a long journey or popping to the garden centre, it will swallow everything you can throw at it and still have space left over. Pair it with the peppy 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine and you'll enjoy sprightly performance, while SE L models come with luxuries including adaptive cruise control, LED headlights and Alcantara-and-leather seat trim.
Find a great Skoda Octavia Estate deal or read our full Octavia Estate review
