A reader from Co Carlow asks: “There are a number of relatively cheap EVs available on the second-hand market. Some have very low mileage but would be old enough to be outside the warranty offered by the manufacturer. So my questions are: How big a risk are these to buy? What checks can you do to mitigate any risks? Is it better to go with a low mileage EV that might not have had much use or a higher mileage car that would have been running regularly?”
Buying a second-hand electric car right now is, in theory, a terrific idea as the plummet in second-hand values which has been the original owners’ loss is potentially the second buyers gain. Certainly, second-hand prices for EVs will likely never be lower than they are now, so this is the time to strike.
The first thing to do before buying is to examine your own situation. Do you have a driveway or other off-street parking where you can install a charging point? If not, then an electric car likely isn’t for you just yet, given the expense and hassle of relying solely on the public charging network. Equally, consider where and how far you regularly drive. Are there plenty of public chargers, both slow and fast, along your regular routes? If not, consider how you’re going to deal with getting a charge when you’re out and about.
Let’s assume that you have a driveway, and you’re happy to pay the cost of getting a home charger installed – that runs to about €1,000 but you’ll quickly make that back in fuel savings.
Next, the car itself. The first and most important thing to consider is the battery and what you’ll want to do is to assess the battery’s overall health. That may have been done for you already – a reputable dealership selling a used EV will have almost certainly had the battery checked and analysed and should be happy to include that data with the rest of the sales material related to the car. If it’s not there, ask why. If, further, the dealer (or private seller) objects to you carrying out your own independent battery check, then walk away – if the seller is trying to hide something on the battery front, it’s probably bad news.
You can have your own battery check done – companies such as Aviloo can, depending on the model, supply you with a simple USB reader that plugs into the car’s diagnostic port, or you can – with the seller’s co-operation – bring the car to a testing station for a fuller report.
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Will the battery be degraded? Yes, it absolutely will, but this is far less likely to be a big issue than you think, and it relates to the questions you’ve asked above about mileage and warranty. While a car may have slipped beyond the original three-year’s manufacturer’s warranty, that’s the warranty for the car – the battery warranty is different. Almost all car makers cover their EV batteries for up to eight years or 160,000km, and that usually covers the battery from dropping below 70 per cent of its original charge level. So if any of those conditions are met, you’re in for a free new battery anyway (or at the very least a free repair).
The good news is that batteries don’t seem to be degrading much at all. According to GeoTab, a company which supplies telematics services to big fleet users (monitoring the use and health of all the cars in a company’s fleet) EV batteries on average degrade at around 1.8 per cent per year. Let’s assume that the car you’re looking at has done a little worse than that, and degraded by 10 per cent – for most models, that means a loss of between 30km and 40km on a full charge, which really ought not to be a deal breaker.
In terms of mileage, with a petrol or diesel car we always say to buy on the condition and history, not the mileage, but in the case of EVs that advice only goes so far. It does still apply, but ask what kind of mileage the car has racked up. If it’s lots of city and main road miles, with charging almost exclusively done at home, then that’s fine. If it’s lots of motorway work with lots of fast charging sessions, be more cautious as its regular fast-charging that degrades batteries the most. Mind you, the battery health check will have already covered most of this ground.
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Beyond that, do the normal checks you would for any used car – check the paint and the body panels, the service history, look for scuffs, scrapes, and tears on the inside, and go for a decent test drive. Make sure you find a bumpy road or some speed bumps on your test route, as electric cars’ silent motors mean that any interior squeaks and rattles will be amplified, and you don’t want to be driven bananas in a few week’s time by a squeaky seat or rattling dashboard.
Finally, shop around for insurance before you take the plunge. Electric cars are generally attracting higher insurance premiums at the moment, because of the potential cost of repair, so make sure you can afford a higher premium, or get a good broker to find you a better deal.
