Longest-range electric cars in 2026

BMW has resurrected the i3 name, but with a car that looks and feels absolutely nothing like the quirky carbon fibre city car that first appeared back in 2013. Instead, the new BMW i3 is a stunning – if polarising – executive saloon. Essentially, it's the fully electric version of the next-generation BMW 3 Series, but whatever you make of the styling, with with an official range of up to 562 miles, it has instantly become the longest-range electric car you can buy in the UK.

That figure isn't just impressive because it's a record, it fundamentally changes the conversation around electric cars. Even allowing for the inevitable difference between official and real-world driving, the new i3 will likely cover 500 miles on a single charge. Suddenly, driving from Newcastle to London is possible in real life, not just on paper.

Lightweight electric motors and an 800-volt electrical system combine to maximise both the i3's efficiency and charging performance. Its 400kW peak charging speed is eight times what the original BMW i3 offered, meaning that you can add hundreds of miles of range in mere minutes… Assuming you can find a fast enough charging station.

Initially only available in BMW i3 50 xDrive First Edition form priced at almost £58,000, expect the line-up to flesh out rapidly, with both less and more expensive derivatives. All new i3s share a genuinely wonderful cabin design centred around BMW's latest Panoramic iDrive display. Sitting just below the windscreen, it's one of the most impressive interior features in any car currently on sale.

The Mercedes-Benz EQS is one of the very best electric cars for long-distance driving and not just because of its massive range. Some newer cars have narrowed the gap to the EQS, but very few combine its range with such a hushed and luxurious driving experience. In theory, the EQS will get you from Buckingham Palace to Balmoral via Windsor Castle without having to charge, with enough spare range to nip out for a well-earned chippy tea. It actually won’t in the real-world, but it should get you to Edinburgh.

You pay a lot for this, obviously. Prices for the longest-range EQS 450+ start at around £104,500, but for that you get sophisticated air suspension, rear-wheel steering and an interior fully furnished with soft-touch, premium materials. The spectacular Hyperscreen dashboard, whose pixels stretch almost the entire width of the cabin, is not standard, mind. But at this price, you might as well push the boat out and get it.

Part of the reason it’s so efficient is because the Mercedes EQS broke a world record for how slippery it is through the air, with little drag to slow it down or dent its energy efficiency. That's in no small part down to its jellybean styling, which some find… Well, a bit ugly. It’s certainly got presence, though, we’ll say that.

No sooner did BMW hit the 500-mile barrier with the iX3 – which we’ll getting to shortly – the Swedes burst its bubble with the 503-mile Volvo EX60. What will appeal to many people about the way the Volvo does it, though, is that it just looks like… A Volvo. Unlike the BMWs, there’s nothing really controversial about the way the EX60 does things. Ish.

Outside, it looks about as conventional as a modern Volvo SUV could, but some might feel that the interior is a little too minimalist. Messing around with a giant touchscreen can feel a bit irksome in a car from a brand whose whole schtick is safety. The EX60's arrangement is an improvement over the highly digitised Volvo EX30's, at least.

It's the first model to use Volvo's brand new electric platform, designed from the ground-up to squeeze as much efficiency from the battery as possible, making the EX60 the brand’s most cutting-edge car. It wants to be given it costs upwards of £56,860 – you can add a further £8k to that for the longest-range EX60 P12 AWD version. Still, it has loads of kit as standard, including infotainment by Google and an interior that’s so high quality that we can’t even invoke the Ikea analogy any more.

The BMW iX3 was the first car built on the so-called 'Neue Klasse’ platform – the same one that the latest BMW i3 uses. It basically means that every part has been designed with an efficient electric car in mind.

That’s why the iX3 was the first production EV on sale in the UK to post a 500-mile range figure, one of the EV’s most significant psychological barriers; BMW has built an electric SUV capable of travelling the same distance in one charge as many diesels do on a tank of fuel.

Like the i3 (funnily enough), iX3 combines a high-density battery with lightweight electric motors. Same 400kW max DC charging speed, too - well “up to 400kW”, if we’re going to get all pedantic about it. Still, remarkable. All this tech isn't cheap, obviously. It’s a lovely car, of course, but a £68,000 starting price is still high for a BMW with a ‘3’ in the name. That feels more like 7 Series money, somehow. Equipment is generous though, including BMW’s latest Panoramic iDrive display and all kinds of active safety stuff. The BMW iX3 marks a genuine milestone for electric cars.

Despite being considerably smaller and cheaper than much on this list, the Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ Electric is only beaten by cars that cost tens of thousands more. Fun fact: Mercedes says that the CLA’s electric motor converts more than 90% of its energy into actual forward motion. Unimpressed? A typical petrol motor converts 30-40%. The rest is basically wasted.

Built on a new and EV-specific chassis, called “MMA” if you’re interested (and nothing to do with cage fighting, weirdly enough), the CLA is an exceptionally slippery aerodynamic design. And also just a very nice car. Starting at around £46,000, it looks remarkably good value, considering the technology underneath and the badge at the front.

Even entry-level models come with twin digital displays, adaptive cruise control, LED lights, heated seats and the latest MBUX infotainment system with AI-powered voice control. As per the BMW, rapid charging is another highlight, with up to 320kW speed allowing around 200 miles of range to be added in about 10 minutes.

The only real compromise is rear headroom, which is tight because of the swooping roofline. The boot is on the small side too.

The Audi A6 Sportback e-tron is one of the brand’s most convincing electric cars so far. Built on the snappily titled Premium Platform Electric (PPE) - a collection of EV bits developed with Porsche, basically – it combines sleek styling with genuinely impressive efficiency. Plus one of the fastest DC charging systems ever made.

Longest-ranged of the Audis is the A6 Sportback e-tron performance, with prices nudging £69,000. As standard it comes with Audi's latest curved digital cockpit, adaptive cruise control, matrix LED headlights and a beautifully finished interior that feels every inch as solid as the brand is famous for, with not an inch of cost-cutting in sight.

To get a tiny bit technical, the 800-volt electrical system means it can charge at speeds of up to 270kW. In practice that means around 192 miles of range in about 10 minutes, when connected to a suitably powerful charger. At your house via a wallbox it’ll still charge at the same 7kW speed as any other EV – a limitation of domestic electricity supply, rather than the car.

The Audi A6 Sportback e-tron's low roofline slightly compromises rear headroom, plus you might want kit such as air suspension and a head-up display to be standard in a car costing this much, but very few alternatives feel this good behind the wheel.

Tesla has always understood that efficiency matters just as much as battery size – it would be relatively easy to make an EV go far by simply strapping a battery the size of a canoe underneath it. But from a battery of 75kWh – about two-thirds the size of a BMW iX’s – the Tesla Model 3 Premium Long Range RWD ekes an official 466 miles. It’s especially impressive for a car that costs under £45,000.

It also comes with access to a charging infrastructure that remains the best in the country – the wide-reaching Supercharger network allows Tesla owners to get 170-odd miles into their cars in as little as 15 minutes.

The cabin will be too minimalist for some – and the car too common, frankly – but the multimedia touchscreen is a lesson in intuitiveness, plus the Model 3 is far better-equipped than it looks. Heated seats, wireless smartphone charging and regular over-the-air software updates mean your Tesla continues to improve long after you've bought it. Ride comfort isn’t the best, while some will find over-reliance on the touchscreen all too weird, but the Model 3 is still one of the best pound-for-pound EVs on sale.

After years of car manufacturers giving their cars names that sound like laptops, it’s actually lovely that DS has come along and made its EV sound like an eau de parfum. And that’s not the only reason that the DS No8 is one of 2026’s biggest surprises. Combining dramatic French styling with exceptional efficiency, it comfortably beats loads of well-established premium cars for outright range. It’s basically doing the same thing as all those perfume dupe companies you see all over social media at the moment.

DS No8 prices start just shy of £51k, but you'll need £54,690 for a Long Range version – expensive for a hatchback but cheap for the luxury car that it’s trying to be. There's a strong focus on comfort, with supportive seats, high-quality materials and distinctive French design touches that help it stand apart from the usual stuff.

Technically it doesn’t match a proper top-end EV – it charges at up to 160kW, which is about half what the Mercedes CLA Electric can muster – but still quick enough to make long journeys relatively painless. As you’d expect, equipment levels are high in a car trying to convince you to buy French, including heated seats, adaptive cruise control and matrix LED headlights.

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class Electric arrives with perhaps the biggest challenge of any car here: Replacing one of Britain's favourite executive saloons. Fortunately, Mercedes has done much more than removing the old diesel engine and fitting a battery to the old C-Class, even if – from a distance – it looks a bit like that could be the case.

Sitting between the Mercedes CLA Electric and the larger Mercedes EQE in the line-up – the firm is in the process of sorting out its confusing naming strategy by ditching the EQ prefix – the C400 Electric uses all-new parts and many of the same efficiency tricks found in its newest EVs. The 800-volt architecture, for instance, which means that you can add around 200 miles of range in just 10 minutes when plugged into a suitably powerful charger.

Another newcomer that’s available to order but not yet in showrooms, prices for the Mercedes C-Class Electric start at just below £58,000, but the assortment of models will quickly expand with both less and more expensive derivatives to choose from. It’s packed to the digital rafters with kit including the latest MBUX infotainment system, adaptive cruise control, heated seats and plenty of active safety technology.

You’ll still want an SUV if you need proper rear seat space – the battery powered C-Class is closely related to the Mercedes GLC Electric – but if you like your EV to look a bit more 'old money', at least from the outside, this is a good one. Apart from those rear lights. They’re… Interesting. As an aside, how annoyed do you think Mercedes was to find that the new BMW i3 trounces this car’s driving range figure?

The BMW i7 is proof that electric cars and old-fashioned refinement can work together hand in hand. Despite weighing about as much as FIFA’s cash reserves, the big BMW manages an official range of 451 miles while delivering the sort of luxury you’d expect from Gianni Infantino’s World Cup hotel suite.

Like the petrol-powered 7 Series – and indeed the aforementioned hotel room – the i7 is unapologetically extravagant. Prices begin at around £104,000 and climb alarmingly quickly from there, but you do get one of the most sophisticated cabins on sale. Everything is heated, including the armrests, the seats massage you, the doors close softly and if you tick the option, rear-seat passengers can enjoy a 31-inch fold-down Theatre Screen. The M25 hasn’t been this entertaining since someone thought they saw Kyle ordering a Whopper meal at South Mimms Services.

Charging speeds of up to 250kW aren't quite as headline-grabbing as some of the stuff on here, but that’s still fast enough to make long-distance touring remarkably easy. More importantly, the BMW i7 feels completely effortless on motorways, gliding along in near silence with barely any wind or tyre noise making its way into the cabin.