These 8 affordable cars are hitting showrooms within the next 12 months

The days of the sub-£10,000 new car are long gone – you can thank ever-tightening safety regulations for that. Anything under £20,000 is considered cheap in 2026, and less than £30,000 is about the norm.

If you’re after a new car which won’t break the bank, there are plenty of options out there with more to come. Here are eight of the best affordable cars coming to the UK in the next 12 months.

1. Dacia Striker
2. Dacia Spring
3. Hyundai Ioniq 3
4. Nissan Pixo
5. Omoda 4
6. Renault Twingo
7. Skoda Epiq
8. Volkswagen ID Every1

1. Dacia Striker

This is the new Dacia Striker, and it’s a car which is hard to pigeonhole. It’s part hatchback, part estate car and a dash of SUV, making it a sort of bridge between a Volkswagen Golf and a Skoda Octavia Estate.

We’ve been to see the Striker in person, and it’s a spacious family car with roomy rear seats and a big boot. It’ll also be available with petrol and hybrid engines, and prices are expected to start from less than £25,000 when it goes on sale later this year.

2. Dacia Spring

Dacia is renowned for making affordable cars, so it makes sense that it appears on this list twice. The new Spring is a small electric city car which shares a lot of parts with the Renault Twingo.

It’s surprisingly spacious inside, offers up to 155 miles of range and will cost less than £18,000 when it goes on sale next year. That’s £6,000 more than the current Spring, but it has a much nicer interior, a longer range and it should be a lot better to drive thanks to its Renault underpinnings.

3. Hyundai Ioniq 3

This is the Hyundai Ioniq 3, and it’s an alternative to small electric cars such as the Renault 4 and Ford Puma Gen-E. It’s available with two battery options, the smallest offering up to 213 miles of range and the larger one getting up to 308 miles on a charge.

It also uses a new 14.6-inch touchscreen which has Android-based software, so it should be just as easy to use as your phone. Prices start from just £22,245, making it around £1,200 cheaper than a Renault 4, and deliveries will start in the next few months.

4. Nissan Pixo

The Nissan Pixo is back. The old car was a petrol-powered city car which shared parts with Suzuki, but now it’s an all-electric city car which is based on the Renault Twingo. That means it uses a 28kWh battery which delivers 161 miles of range.

It also has an impressively large 356-litre boot, clever sliding rear seats and it’ll cost less than £20,000 when it goes on sale at the beginning of 2027.

5. Omoda 4

This is the new Omoda 4, and it’ll be the smallest SUV offered by the Chinese manufacturer when it goes on sale next year. It’ll initially launch with a hybrid engine, but an all-electric version will follow which we expect to offer more than 250 miles of range.

We’ve also had a glimpse at the interior, and it looks a lot more sporty inside than Omoda’s current offerings. The carbon-effect centre console and red cover for the start button look almost Lamborghini-esque, but with an expected starting price of under £25,000 it costs around a tenth of a well-specced Urus.

6. Renault Twingo

The long-awaited new Renault Twingo is almost ready to come to UK shores, having launched in Europe earlier this year. Mat Watson has driven the car, and he was impressed with how spacious it is inside and how grown-up it feels to drive.

Let’s face it, the Twingo is also adorable. The bright colour options help it to stand out even more, and with a sub-£20,000 price tag it’s certainly affordable. Choosing between this, the Pixo and the Spring could be tricky seeing as they’re all the same car underneath, but the Twingo’s funky design could be enough to clinch it for some people.

7. Skoda Epiq

The new Skoda Epiq is the brand’s smallest electric car, and it shares parts with the Volkswagen ID Polo and Cupra Raval. The Epiq is a lot more spacious than those cars though, and it’s a jacked-up SUV as opposed to a traditional hatchback.

Entry-level cars have 135hp and 190 miles of range, while higher-spec models get 211hp and 272 miles of range. That’s 20 miles more than a Renault 4 can manage, and the Epiq should cost about the same as that car as well. Prices will start at under £25,000.

8. Volkswagen ID Every1

Volkswagen has just launched the new ID Polo, and following it will be an even smaller electric car to take on the Renault Twingo and Honda Super N. It’s just a concept for now, called the ID Every1, but the production car could be called the ID Up in reference to the brand’s petrol-powered city car which was discontinued in 2023.

According to Volkswagen it’ll have “at least” 155 miles of range, which is slightly less than the Twingo but more than 30 miles up on the Honda Super N. Prices are also expected to start from around £20,000 when the car goes on sale next year.

The three best affordable cars you can buy right now

Can’t wait to get yourself an affordable set of wheels? Here are three of our favourite cheap cars you can buy right now.

1. Dacia Sandero

The Dacia Sandero is the cheapest petrol-powered car you can buy right now, but it’s by no means nasty. The interior feels solid and offers plenty of space, it’s comfortable to drive and the range of efficient petrol and hybrid engines offer great fuel economy.

Prices start from just under £14,800, but for an extra £1,000 you can get the nicely equipped mid-spec model. It has a touchscreen infotainment system with wireless phone mirroring, a reversing camera and nicer interior materials.

2. Renault 5

If you’re after a great-looking electric car without breaking the bank, the Renault 5 is hard to beat. It’s not only stylish on the outside, it also has a really cool interior with a Google-based infotainment system which is a doddle to use.

Prices start from £21,500, but we’d step up to the mid-spec Techno+ model to get improved range and a bit more power. This version has the Google software as well, and upgrading only costs an extra £2,500.

3. Chery Tiggo 4

It’s hard not to recommend the Chery Tiggo 4 when you’re talking about value for money, because it’s a full-hybrid SUV for less than £20,000. Alright, so the version you want is £22,000, but it offers a lot of equipment for the money.

Top-spec cars have heated seats, a heated steering wheel, surround-view cameras and wireless phone charging. To put that into perspective, a Vauxhall Corsa with the same level of equipment costs close to £28,000, and that’s a much smaller and less practical car than the Chery.

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