UK new car buyers drive a bargain as average discount nears £6,000

If you are considering buying a new car, now might be the time to act as new data shows manufacturers and dealers slashing prices by more than 10%, with the average discount close to £6,000.The typical discount available across all petrol, diesel and electric cars sold in the UK is 11.4% of the on-the-road price – the equivalent of £5,911 – according to Insider Car Deals, which sells discount data to people looking to buy.On-the-road prices include all of the extras required to drive a car, including road tax, registration fees, number plates, delivery and VAT.For electric vehicles (EVs) the average price reduction is 12.9% – including the savings from government electric car grants that apply to certain vehicles. The absolute size of the discounts on battery cars is larger, at £7,091, mainly because manufacturers have been slower to produce electric versions of the smaller, cheaper cars that are the backbone of the petrol market.While this is all good news for consumers, car industry executives complain that official EV sales targets are too tough, forcing them to offer “unsustainable” discounts on battery cars amid intense competition – particularly from new Chinese brands.Also, despite the car industry’s focus on EVs, as they lobby for easier targets, for some models the discount on a petrol model is proportionally bigger. Take the popular British-made Nissan Qashqai: the price data suggest that a new model can be found for £36,000, or 17.9% off the recommended retail price.Nissan has not begun producing its electric Qashqai, but its similar-sized electric vehicle, the Ariya, has a discount of only 13.1%, putting it at an average price of £45,264 (with some versions eligible for grants).Kia’s Niro EV can be found at a 7.1% discount, at £38,460, without being eligible for a grant, whereas there is 13.2% off a Kia Niro Hybrid, which combines a small battery with a petrol engine, putting it at £33,225.Whichever choice buyers make, it usually pays to haggle – particularly at the end of the month or the quarter when dealers may have sales targets they need to meet.Even if the upfront price for a new electric car remains higher in many cases, the total cost of ownership may well be lower, particularly for people who can charge the car at home. Battery motors are much more efficient, meaning less energy is lost to heat and noise, which leads directly to lower energy costs (and much lower carbon emissions), while maintenance costs are also lower on average.The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a campaign group, last month calculated that internal combustion engines cost drivers an annual £1,300 “petrol premium” at 2025 fuel prices.Colin Walker, the ECIU’s head of transport, says: “With a majority of people able to charge their vehicles at home and take advantage of cheap, night-time charging tariffs, these vehicles can deliver savings worth hundreds, even thousands of pounds a year.”The UK’s electric car grant of up to £3,750 has meant that price parity between electric and petrol has arrived for some new car models. Walker highlighted the Ford Puma, the bestselling car in the UK in 2025, which starts from £26,580. That compares with £26,245 for the electric Puma Gen-E, after the grant.“It’s no surprise that EV sales increased so significantly in 2025,” says Walker. “The choice of models is constantly expanding and, crucially, the price of EVs is coming down as manufacturers compete with each other to hit their EV sales targets.”Shortages of new cars during the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent chip shortage meant discounts were not needed to shift cars, but the market is shifting back – with the added impetus of competition from Chinese marques such as BYD, SAIC’s MG and Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo offering keen prices. That has put bargains back on the table at car dealerships.Pat Hoy, the founder of Insider Car Deals, says the level of discounting is “not unprecedented. The market as a whole is starting to look a lot like it did just before Covid, where the manufacturers are getting back to usual sale patterns, turning discounts on and off.”