Now is a really good time to buy a second-hand electric car. Don’t believe me? Just go and have a look at the prices.
All the headlines talk about parlous depreciation on new electric cars – and they’re right. New EVs are dropping in value like a stone, with some of the worst models for it holding on to as little as 30 per cent of their value after three years.
As a result, I’ve spent the last year or so telling anyone who’ll listen that, while new EVs are still pretty pricey, second-hand examples are in fact starting to look like real bargains.
These cars are two or three years old, often with low mileages, that have barely been run in. By and large, they’re showing little to no sign of battery degradation, and many of them still have significant portions of their manufacturer warranty remaining. Yet they cost – in some cases – half as much as they would have done when they rolled out of the showroom.
So good are the deals around at the moment, in fact, that I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is. That’s right – I’ve gone and bought one.
It’s a 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5; a mid-range Premium model with the larger 73kWh battery and two-wheel drive. It’s done 23,000 miles, and it cost just over £20,000. Brand new, it would have been just shy of £43,000.
Better still, the Hyundai main dealer we bought it from agreed to add a three-year extension of the warranty for a few hundred quid extra. Given the car already had two years of the manufacturer warranty remaining, that means our Ioniq 5 will remain under warranty until it’s eight years old.
But what about that battery degradation? Well, we asked the dealer to carry out a battery state of health (SoH) check before we agreed to buy.
This is basically a test of the battery’s health, and it shows as a percentage figure just how much of the car’s original capacity remains. I’d always recommend asking for one if you’re planning to buy a used EV. In our case, it was still 100 per cent – in other words, as good as new, or as near as made no difference.
That should mean our Ioniq 5 is capable of around 250 miles in the real world in good weather, which will probably drop to around 220-230 in the winter.
But what other options are out there if you want to buy a used EV for yourself? Well, a top choice for me would be the Ioniq 5’s platform-mate the Kia EV6. The EV6 is slightly sportier in ethos than the Ioniq 5, with a slightly tauter ride quality – which is why it makes sense to eschew the top-of-the-range models with their big wheels and weighty four-wheel-drive systems, and instead choose the Air version with the 77kWh battery.
How about a 2022 example with just 22,000 miles on the clock for £21,121? That’s £1,100 below its CarGurus Instant Market Value (IMV), making this a cracking deal on a car that’s still got four years of its manufacturer warranty remaining, and the price even includes delivery to your door on this example.
Or how about something smaller? The Vauxhall Corsa E is one of the most heavily depreciating new EVs, and so used examples are colossally cheap.
For example, the 2020 Elite Nav example I found. This one’s the top of the range, so comes loaded with all the toys, and has done just 32,000 miles. Yet it’s selling for just £8,800 – £1,314 less than its market value. That’s a cracking deal in anyone’s book.
What if you want something a little more luxurious, though? Well, how about a bona fide BMW EV, and one of our favourites to boot? I’m talking about the BMW i4, a suave four-door coupe with an impressive range.
The i4 is often overlooked in favour of its big-name rival, the Tesla Model 3, but the BMW is in fact a better car, with greater practicality thanks to its lift-back boot, and a higher-quality interior.
Which makes the £25,500 list price for the 2022 example with 34,000 miles that I found all the more tempting. That’s a whopping £1,845 less than its market value according to CarGurus, and a bargain for a car that cost almost £50,000 brand new. With deals like these around, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to jump on the used EV bandwagon too.
Five top tips when buying a used EV
- Ask for a battery state of health (SoH) check
This is a test that many dealers can carry out, which probes the car’s battery management system to find how much capacity remains. It’ll help you determine which cars have suffered greater battery degradation, perhaps through careless rapid charging, and which have retained more of their original capacity. You’ll be told in percentage terms how much remains – so if you’re looking at a car that could do 250 miles when it was new, which has a 98 per cent state of health, it’ll now do 245 miles on a charge.
- Check the tyre wear
EVs tend to offer quite a lot of performance, which means that those that have been driven hard will have worn their tyres more quickly. So check the tyres on all the cars you’re looking at – if they look particularly badly worn, the previous owner might have been a bit of a boy racer.
- Get as much extended warranty as you can
EVs are mechanically very simple, and this is often held up as an advantage, in that there isn’t much to go wrong. But that’s not the whole story. While EVs have fewer components, those components are often quite expensive to replace, so it’s still worth having a long warranty, just in case.
- Don’t forget to check charging speeds
It’s all good and well having a big battery and a long range, but if your car will take an age to charge up at a rapid charger, you’ll still find it frustrating. So look up the specs of the car you want to buy online and check how fast its on-board DC charger can charge; anything over 150kW is pretty quick, while anything over 200kW will make charging a breeze.
- Check the service history
EVs might be mechanically simple, but they still need servicing – especially if you want to keep a long warranty going. So make sure you check the service history, which might take the form of an on-screen display or an old-fashioned service book, and ensure the car’s been serviced on time.