Skoda Enyaq is October's best-selling EV as Tesla drops out of the top ten

The Skoda Enyaq was the UK’s best-selling electric car in October 2026, with 1,568 registrations, according to figures published by the SMMT on 5 November. Tesla, whose Model 3 topped the electric table in September, registered just 282 cars and had no model in the top ten. For UK buyers, the list is a useful snapshot of what is plentiful and well discounted right now, and half of the ten qualify for the Electric Car Grant.

The month’s electric table was unusually close. Only 540 registrations separated the Enyaq from the Leapmotor B10 in tenth. Below we set out what each of the ten costs, which get the grant, how far they go and what they cost to charge at home.

What were the best-selling electric cars in October 2026?

SMMT’s electric-only top ten for October, which Electrek also reported, was:

Rank	Model	October 2026 registrations
1	Skoda Enyaq	1,568
2	Mini Countryman Electric	1,494
3	Jaecoo E5	1,465
4	Vauxhall Frontera Electric	1,331
5	Audi Q4 e-tron	1,234
6	BYD Seal	1,207
7	BMW iX3	1,141
8	Ford Puma Gen-E	1,077
9	Kia EV3	1,036
10	Leapmotor B10	1,028

SMMT lists the third-placed car as the “Jaecoo 5” and the eighth as the “Ford Puma”. In its electric table those are the battery-electric Jaecoo E5 and Puma Gen-E. Together the ten cars account for 12,581 registrations, about 26% of the 48,858 electric cars registered in the month, which shows how spread out the market has become.

Compare that with September, a plate-change month, when the Tesla Model 3 alone sold 9,929, as we reported in our September best-sellers list. October is a much smaller month: SMMT recorded 152,730 new cars in total, against 350,518 in September.

How do the electric and overall top tens differ?

SMMT’s release carries two model tables for October, and the labels on its page are easy to misread. The overall table, covering all fuel types, is led by the Jaecoo 7 (3,412), which is sold as a petrol or plug-in hybrid, followed by the Ford Puma (3,369) and Volkswagen Golf (2,642). The electric table is the one led by the Enyaq.

Putting the two side by side gives a rough sense of how electric some best-sellers now are. These are our calculations from SMMT’s figures:

• Ford Puma: 1,077 of 3,369 Pumas registered were the electric Gen-E, about 32%.
• Mini Countryman: 1,494 of 2,480 were electric, about 60%.
• Jaecoo 5: 1,465 of 2,171 were the electric E5, about 67%.

Battery-electric cars took 32.0% of the whole market in October, their highest share this year, according to SMMT. “Almost one in three new cars registered in October was electric,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT’s chief executive, though he added that “higher targets may force supply, but they do not create demand.”

How much do October’s top ten cost, and which get the grant?

Five of the ten are on the government’s Electric Car Grant list. The Mini Countryman Electric and Ford Puma Gen-E are in Band 1, worth £3,750. The Skoda Enyaq, Vauxhall Frontera Electric and Kia EV3 are in Band 2, worth £1,500. The other five are not listed. Those five grant cars made up 6,506 of the top ten’s 12,581 registrations, just over half.

Model	Starting price	Electric Car Grant	WLTP range (up to)
Skoda Enyaq	£37,510 (SE L 60, after grant)	Band 2, £1,500	359 miles (SE L 85)
Mini Countryman Electric	from £33,005	Band 1, £3,750	307 miles (Countryman E)
Jaecoo E5	£27,505	Not listed	248 miles
Vauxhall Frontera Electric	£27,995 (54kWh, launch price)	Band 2, £1,500	253 miles (54kWh)
Audi Q4 e-tron	£46,260	Not listed	360 miles
BYD Seal	£45,730	Not listed	354 miles
BMW iX3	£53,250 (iX3 40)	Not listed	395 miles (iX3 40)
Ford Puma Gen-E	£26,245 (after grant)	Band 1, £3,750	259 miles
Kia EV3	£31,555 (after grant)	Band 2, £1,500	375 miles
Leapmotor B10	£29,995 (after Leap-Grant)	Not listed	270 miles

Prices come from the makers or the trade press, and some are launch figures that may since have moved. Skoda’s grant-eligible Enyaq prices were reported by EV Fleet World in October 2025, with the longer-range SE L 85 at £40,480 after the grant. The Countryman’s £33,005 is Carwow’s listed price, and Carwow does not say whether it includes the grant. The Frontera figure is the August 2025 launch price reported by EV Powered, and the Jaecoo E5 price is from its August 2025 launch, reported by electrive. Ford’s own site and Kia’s show today’s grant-inclusive prices.

The Leapmotor B10’s £29,995 includes the brand’s own £1,500 Leap-Grant, which Leapmotor funds because the B10 is not eligible for the government scheme, as EV Fleet World reported. We cover its September surge in our Leapmotor B10 sales report, and the full list of eligible cars is in our grant eligibility guide.

The spread is wide. The cheapest car in the top ten after its grant, the Puma Gen-E at £26,245, costs £27,005 less than the entry BMW iX3. Our Puma Gen-E price guide and Audi Q4 e-tron price report give the trim-by-trim detail.

What do they cost to charge at home?

We have worked out a cost per mile for each car from official WLTP figures and two electricity prices checked today:

• 6.5p per kWh, the smart charging rate on Intelligent Octopus Go for eligible cars.
• 26.32p per kWh, the average price cap unit rate for 1 October to 31 December 2026, according to Ofgem.

Efficiency is the maker’s WLTP consumption where one is published (BMW, Ford and Kia), and otherwise the WLTP range divided by the stated battery size. The yearly figure assumes 8,000 miles, which is our assumption for illustration. Standing charges are left out.

Model	WLTP miles per kWh	Cost per mile at 6.5p	Cost per mile at 26.32p	8,000 miles at 6.5p / 26.32p
Skoda Enyaq SE L 85 (77kWh, 359 miles)	4.7	1.4p	5.6p	£112 / £452
Mini Countryman E (65.2kWh, 307 miles)	4.7	1.4p	5.6p	£110 / £447
Jaecoo E5 (61.1kWh, 248 miles)	4.1	1.6p	6.5p	£128 / £519
Vauxhall Frontera Electric (54kWh, 253 miles)	4.7	1.4p	5.6p	£111 / £449
BYD Seal Design (82.5kWh, 354 miles)	4.3	1.5p	6.1p	£121 / £491
BMW iX3 40 (14.6kWh per 100km)	4.3	1.5p	6.2p	£122 / £495
Ford Puma Gen-E (up to 5.5 miles per kWh)	5.5	1.2p	4.8p	£95 / £383
Kia EV3 (14.9 to 16.2kWh per 100km)	3.8 to 4.2	1.6p to 1.7p	6.3p to 6.9p	£125 to £136 / £505 to £549
Leapmotor B10 (67.1kWh, 270 miles)	4.0	1.6p	6.5p	£129 / £523

We have left out the Audi Q4 e-tron because the sources we checked give a maximum range but not the battery or consumption for the entry car.

Treat these as best-case figures. WLTP efficiency is measured in a lab, and real-world figures are usually lower, especially in cold weather and on motorways. Where we divided range by battery size, the result depends on whether the maker quotes a usable or gross capacity, so small differences between cars are not meaningful. The bigger point holds: on a smart EV tariff, any of these cars costs roughly a quarter of what it would on the standard capped rate. Our EV tariffs guide compares the main off-peak deals.

Why did Tesla drop out of the top ten?

Tesla registered 282 cars in the UK in October, down 44.8% from 511 in October 2025, according to SMMT’s brand figures. That was about 0.6% of the month’s electric registrations, on our calculation. Its year-to-date total is still up 31.2%, at 46,526 against 35,455 a year earlier.

Electrek notes that October is typically slow for Tesla because it is the first month of a quarter. Tesla concentrates its deliveries in the final month of each quarter, so the month that follows tends to be quiet. Our Tesla September sales report covers the other side of that swing.

Does Tesla always dip in the first month of a quarter?

The pattern shows up clearly in the figures we could check:

Month	Tesla UK registrations	Position in quarter	Source
April 2025	512	First month	Reuters, via Cyprus Mail
October 2025	511	First month	SMMT
June 2026	12,403	Last month	Electrek
September 2026	15,875	Last month	Electrek
October 2026	282	First month	SMMT

June and September alone add up to 28,278 registrations, about 61% of Tesla’s 46,526 for the year so far, on our calculation. In its September report, Electrek said Tesla “always loads its deliveries into the last month of a quarter”, and that 42% of the Model 3’s 23,704 UK registrations this year came in September.

So October’s figure says little about demand for Teslas. The fairer tests are the quarter as a whole and the year to date, and on the year Tesla is well ahead of 2025. December, the end of the fourth quarter, is when to expect its next big month. If you are weighing a Tesla against October’s leader, our Tesla Model Y vs Skoda Enyaq comparison and our Tesla price check set out the numbers.

What else changed in the brand table?

Several brands with cars in the electric top ten grew strongly in October, though SMMT’s brand figures cover all fuel types:

Brand	October 2026	October 2025	Change
Skoda	6,832	5,968	Up 14.5%
Jaecoo	6,089	2,851	Up 113.6%
BYD	6,065	3,499	Up 73.3%
Mini	5,269	4,266	Up 23.5%
Leapmotor	1,773	856	Up 107.1%
Tesla	282	511	Down 44.8%

Electric registrations rose 32.7% to 48,858 in October, and 503,805 have been registered this year, a 26.6% share, according to SMMT. It forecasts a 27.2% share for 2026 against the 33% the ZEV mandate requires, which is why discounting is likely to continue. Our report on the ZEV mandate gap and year-end discounts explains what that could mean for prices.

Our view

October’s list shows a market no longer led by one or two cars. Family SUVs from Skoda, Mini, Audi and BMW sit alongside cheaper Chinese-built cars and small crossovers from Ford, Vauxhall and Kia, and half of the ten carry a government grant. If you are buying, the grant matters more than a car’s position in the table: a £3,750 or £1,500 discount can move a car several thousand pounds against its rivals.

Tesla’s absence is a quirk of timing rather than a collapse, and its year is up by almost a third. For running costs, the tariff matters more than the car: every model here costs well under 2p a mile on a smart EV tariff, and about four times that on the standard capped rate. Check current prices and grant status with the dealer before you order, because several of the prices above date from launch.