AFFORDABLE ELECTRIC CARS DRIVEN UNTIL THEY DIE

Five EVs under £24k have joined Dacia's Spring on the UK market. How far can you go on a budget? We find out

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ANOTHER torrential summer rainstorm sweeps across the motorway, making the BYD Dolphin Surf's wipers swipe from side to side like a feverish Tinder user. The back one would be doing the same but, annoyingly, the Dolphin Surf doesn't have one.

I'd quite like to get home, which Google Maps tells me is 39 miles away. The thing is, the Surf's trip computer tells me I have only 37 miles until the battery is dead. Great.

Welcome to our range test of the six cheapest electric cars on the market, three from European brands, two from Chinese ones and a Hyundai from Korea. We're driving them until their digital displays flash up zero battery remaining, to prove how far you can actually go in these budget babies, and how they behave when driven to the point of no return.

Not so long ago these tiny cars were strung out across the M1's lanes like jelly beans spilling across a sweet shop's counter. There's the bright green car of the moment, the Renault 5, the radiant yellow BYD and Fiat Grande Panda glowing like the intermittent sun, the dark Hyundai Inster (probably blackcurrant flavour), murky blue Dacia Spring and white Leapmotor T03, the result of a joint venture between Stellantis and China's Zhejiang Leapmotor.

One by one they've headed back to base to recharge, leaving me alone in the rain and praying I can make it to the kerbside charger just around the corner from my home. Especially in this rain.