THE cost of buying an electric car can vary by as much as £60,000 depending on the country you live in.

Research from online site Compare The Market has revealed the dramatic difference from £22,015 for a Nissan Leaf in Spain to £84,866 in Singapore.

The company carried out the study in February using data from Nissan's own website in each country and converting the currency to sterling.

It chose to take the example of the Leaf because it is the world's best selling electric car as well as being one of the first on the market.

Spain beat the French island of Reunion into second place, where a Leaf would cost you the equivalent of £22,100 followed by Portugal in third place (£22,848).

Singapore was by far the costliest place to buy the Leaf. The second most expensive place in the world was Thailand (£49,750) followed by Argentina (£47,432).

The UK did not make the top ten, which included Poland (£23,600), Japan (£23,617), Norway (£24,184), USA (£24,332), Canada (£24,553), France (£24,990) and the Republic of Ireland ((£25,407).

The UK came in 13 place with a Nissan Leaf costing £26,345 including the government grant of £3,500.

A motor trade insider said: "There will always be some local variances and in the case of electric that may well be down to the appetite for supporting a green agenda with taxation or support.

"I am aware that Norway did have a scheme whereby the purchaser of a new electric car was entitled to the VAT back, here we now have electric cars getting zero BiK for company car drivers from April 6.

"The variance on Singapore pricing is shocking and could be because they are perhaps taxed as some form of luxury goods over there, maybe even a domestic versus imported product taxation duty situation."

The figures come as all-electric cars have bucked the trend in the car industry by showing a threefold increase in sales.