Electric Vehicle purchase (used)

New Avon Arms
gr cz527

gr cz527

Well-Known Member
good morning,

my wifes peugeot 2008 is due for renewal in a few months and we have been looking at replacing it with either an audi Q3 2.0 diesel or honda Crv 1.6 diesel with a 15k budget and i work in a ULEZ when it comes into force. i will keep my L200 which i will use for shooting and foxing etc but my wife will use it for her work 5 mile journey) and to her stables.
however i stumbled upon 2nd hand electric cars within budget and newer than the diesels above in budget with over half the miles done, now its not honda or audi but theres VW golfs and DS 3s. obviously we would have the outlay for a charging point etc but i can get a newer car with less miles and will cost less to run. is it a no brainer? has anyone done similar?
 
Liveonce said:
How old is the EV and what is the performance of the batteries now. Then who would need to pay for new batteries.

miles done in an EV may not be so important as to how well the batteries have been cared for.
Click to expand...
the ev was a 2022 with 20000 on the clock. the batteries has a warranty on them of 9 years i think. good thing to check on. thanks
 
There are a number of things to consider about an ev.
Obviously range and health of the batteries.

Here are some thoughts that have been popping around and worth thinking about.
Most Ev's are more expensive than their ICE counterpart. Well known.
The following are my thoughts and some I have picked up from the industry. I do work in an industry with batteries
Most larger ev's are being bought by company car drivers to beat the BIK company car taxes, pay 7% I think it is instead of 20 something percent. A lot of these cars are coming on to market and a lot of garages and people do now want them secondhand. Then reasons are, not many mechanics can fix them if they go wrong, unlike your ICE. Althought they seem to have their issues as well.
Technology moves along, so let’s say your car will do 100 miles per charge now and in 3 years when you sell it, it will still do 100 miles, by then, most cars should or could be doing 150 miles per charge, if you were buying, which car would you look at buying, therefore your car could devalue significantly more over the next 3 years to a point where it may be almost give away. Who wants an early digital nv scope when you have things like the Zulu for not a lot of money. I gave away an early nv add on I had cos nobody would buy it. Works fine, just not got the finesse of a modern item. I even have my first thermal, again, couldn’t sell it if I wanted to because it weight as much as a brick and run time with AA is about 2 hours if I’m lucky.

So compare the above costs against maybe a petrol or even a hybrid against a fully ev and see what the figures are like. I am not a detractor of EV cars, I think they have a role as a city car, but I think prices are going to come down as can be seen as the manufacturers seem to be backing off them as well as looking more into hydrogen etc.

Do your sums and see what works out for you but, have a good look at depreciation, you might find a petrol car is better.
Oh, and one major thing. If your battery’s die and you scrap the car. How much is it going to cost you? Going rate is probably about £4 a kilo. That should come down over time as more players come into the market, but I can’t remember who, if anyone is investing in the larger battery recycling, I know there are a few who do the smaller batteries.
Good luck with whatever you go for.
 
Check out the dealer warnings re batteries on secondhand electric and hybrid vehicles, they’re not very reassuring.
 
gr cz527 said:
good morning,

my wifes peugeot 2008 is due for renewal in a few months and we have been looking at replacing it with either an audi Q3 2.0 diesel or honda Crv 1.6 diesel with a 15k budget and i work in a ULEZ when it comes into force. i will keep my L200 which i will use for shooting and foxing etc but my wife will use it for her work 5 mile journey) and to her stables.
however i stumbled upon 2nd hand electric cars within budget and newer than the diesels above in budget with over half the miles done, now its not honda or audi but theres VW golfs and DS 3s. obviously we would have the outlay for a charging point etc but i can get a newer car with less miles and will cost less to run. is it a no brainer? has anyone done similar?
Click to expand...
Go for it and ignore the dinosaurs on here who'll tell you it's the equivalent of the end of the world :)

Cheers

Bruce
 
Petrol, diesel, hybrid and EV it matters not which one, do your research like any large purchase, what works for you and your family won't work for others, if it all stacks up good then go for it.
 
I’m all for EV especially when you have to drive in the socialist republic that is London. However I would probably not buy a secondhand unless I had someone who knew about them intimately look over it. As mentioned above factory recalls etc are all well and good but problems of they arise after I found out this week when I blew a motor on my Audi are £££££ thankfully it’s a warranty job but if I had to pay it the bill would be eye watering.

Some good cheap lease deals on new stuff about atm if you arnt fussed about a brand.
 
part of the problem of buying a used EV is not knowing what state the batteries are in capacity wise, with an ICE you can look at the mileage reading MOT history and form an opinion on its likely remaining life and hence value. You cannot do that with an EV.
 
If the range is not a problem, second hand EV’s can be good value but remember that the residual value is almost guaranteed to drop faster than ICE cars.
Getting anyone to fix them is both difficult and expensive and any parts especially batteries, controllers and wheel motors have the potential to write it off if not under warranty.
Absolutely essential would be to get a diagnostic report on the battery health as this will give you a realistic indication of what life expectancy should be.
Also bear in mind that although the recycling end of life value should be decent, the reality is that the recycler’s will only pay scrap value
 
Liveonce said:
part of the problem of buying a used EV is not knowing what state the batteries are in capacity wise, with an ICE you can look at the mileage reading MOT history and form an opinion on its likely remaining life and hence value. You cannot do that with an EV.
Click to expand...
Wrong.
Most, if not all EVs can display the remaining capacity of their batteries either directly on a display in the vehicle or via an app
Since manufacturers warranties on EV batteries are based on the state of the battery, there needs to be a way to measure and display that value such that it can be seen by both the owner and manufacturer

Cheers

Cheers

Bruce
 
viking90 said:
Have you tried getting insurance quotes for it? I believe they can be alot of EVs.
Click to expand...
just getting quotes to keep my ex work seat Mii (VW e UP) no spare no claims, looking at £350 ish
my wife wants it as she never puts fuel in a car, so it will be on charge off the solar panels each day,
 
My brother had an electric car. It was a renault Zoe 2021 bought for approx 22k secondhand. he used it for a work vehicle driving round town doing approx 80 miles a day.
It saved a lot on fuel and was a good car and he put approx 40k miles on it in 2 years with nothing spent on it for repairs. It was written off a week ago because someone lost control of their car and went into him. Insurance valued it at 10k.
the plus- cheap to run and service , the negative- they depreciate like hell.

heard plenty of stories of new electric porsche/tesla halving in value in 2 years
 
worth saying a big bonus of electric cars is they dont wear their brakes very quickly because of the way they use electric braking to recharge
 
mealiejimmy said:
Wrong.
Most, if not all EVs can display the remaining capacity of their batteries either directly on a display in the vehicle or via an app
Since manufacturers warranties on EV batteries are based on the state of the battery, there needs to be a way to measure and display that value such that it can be seen by both the owner and manufacturer

Cheers

Cheers

Bruce
Click to expand...
And car manufacturers never fib about anything do they Bruce.
 
It seems to me that if an EV can do your wife's commute and is useful for those other journeys she/you do, then it's a possibility. They do not keep their value as well as more traditional motive power vehicles though. But even then, if you benefit from the second hand values being lower, that's no bad thing.

Whatever their potential range though, they are mostly not up to doing long journeys still without a lot of faff finding a charger and waiting around whilst does it's stuff. What's more, charging away from home costs a similar amount to filling up a petrol/diesel car anyway. So for me, they're fine as a run about but you do need something with longer legs too.

Just get used to suffering with range anxiety. :)
 
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