Electric car - second hand?

[Cloudyb]

We are coming to the end of our lease and we can either afford:

• an brand new petrol car
• second hand electric

Which is the better option? We can't afford brand new electric (cheapest seem to be about £8k more than petrol for new cars).

Depends on the car, the age of its battery, and on the mileage.

what electric car are you considering?

I've been looking at a mini or Tesla potentially.

Usually second hand electric cars have been leased and people haven’t looked after the battery’s properly, charging to 100% everytime etc.

Brother bought a s/h Tesla model 3 a few years back, hasn’t been a problem. I think you’d probably get a good deal on one these days as the brand has lost a bit of its kudus now (cough-Twitter-cough)

Personally I’d opt for a bulletproof low mileage ice car ie a Toyota or Honda.

I bought a second hand EV earlier this year and everything I researched said that EV batteries are holding up far better than anyone ever predicted, even if they're not managed absolutely perfectly. Mine is 4 years old and is ex-lease, it's still getting exactly the advertised mileage on the battery when charged. My neighbour bought a first gen Nissan Leaf last year as a runaround for £2k, it's over 10 years old with 105k miles on it and incredibly it is still getting nearly 90 miles to a charge!

I think the decision is better made on the usual criteria - what do you usually use your car for, where do you park it, how likely are you to need to take regular long trips, etc. I have an EV because 90% of my car use is travelling within a 20 mile radius of our home - school run, supermarket, commute - or travelling somewhere I know I can definitely charge (family). If my car use was different eg. I had a second home 400 miles away that I drove to every weekend, or I go wild camping regularly, I'd probably get a hybrid.

I would check what the warranty is on an EV battery. Not the same thing, but DH is looking at getting a hybrid and the battery warranty is 8 years on the model he us interested in. So he's looking at getting at 3 years and selling at 8 years. If it goes wrong, the one he is looking at is £8k to replace the battery.

The range in the old electric mini is horrendous - think it's under 150 full range.

I bought a second hand Leaf 7 years ago, it was a dream to drive and saved me a fortune when petrol was sky high.

Batteries have generally held up better than people feared, so second hand electric might be a good choice, depending on your lifestyle and needs.

Have you factored in your fuel savings in your affordability?

I used to spend £200 a month on fuel. I now spend less than £20 on electricity.
My new EV came with a free charger install.

£200 of fuel in my Honda Civic 1.8 gets me about 1000 miles. Does £20 of charge really give that much?

The Mini has a terrible range. Unless you only ever do short journeys and charge at home, it would get annoying very quickly.

Tesla is like the other extreme - they often have a very good range.

Both are, in my mind, a case of style over substance. The appeal of Tesla very much used to be the charging network. But now other cars can use the tesla network, that exclusivity isn't a bonus any more. I also thought it was all too over designed and trying to be too clever for its own good. It wasn't worth the price premium IMO.

After a lot of research, I went for an ID3, and am very happy with it. Gets about 210 miles on a charge (except when it's very cold) and is lovely to drive. Very roomy too. It is also very well specced for the price. I bought a 3 year old one from a VW dealership so it has a 3yr warranty.

My car is about 3p per mile to charge at home (vs 20p per mile in your example). So 1,000 miles would cost me about £30.

We had to pay for the charger, but it paid for itself pretty quickly. We also make use of the cheap electricity from the EV tariff to use the washing machine and dishwasher at night too. Not a huge saving, but still a saving.

I just did the maths on our older EV and I’m afraid it doesn’t, no.

But £22.67 does 😁

It all depends on circumstances! It might be the best option for some people buy OP is considering electric, so that's clearly an option which could work for her.

EVs are nicer to drive (vs the equivalent ICE) and cheaper to run. A brand new petrol car will depreciate hugely, whereas a used EV will have taken the worst hit already.

That's impressive! What tariff are you on? Is that all year? Mine costs about 2p per mile in summer, but probably closer to 4p in winter, which averages to 3p. But your figures are very good indeed!

@BuzzieLittleBee We’re on Octopus Go, so in fairness it’s the night rate. On the day rate it would be £66. But night charging works for us, which is a bonus.

Yes, we pay 7p per kW and you set up the charger to only charge during the cheap hours despite now long it is plugged in for. So I just plug it in when I get home.

Wow, wasn’t expecting it to be that cheap. Was only doubting you from my brothers experience with his ev (in his words: not that much cheaper) but he has no home charging facilities and is mainly using fast chargers at motorway service stations.

Yeah, rapid charging as the only source won’t make much difference on cost to running an ICE.

Fun fact that the nomenclature is somewhat misleading - ‘fast’ is eg home or destination charging on a dedicated charger as it draws over a certain amount; ‘rapid’ is what he was probably using and is what you commonly see at motorway services, for example; and ‘slow’ is charging off a three-pin socket.

A 3-5yo second hand electric bought from a brand-dedicated dealer is what I go for. Then you usually get additional warranty as and better maintained vehicles than you would buying privately or from an all-brands dealer.

We got a petrol car in the same situation

We had an electric car through work and it was a mare - brilliant for short journeys but my sister lives on the south coast and dp's family in Oxfordshire and every time we did the trip we would get range anxiety because there were so few good, quick chargers where we were going so when that lease came up, we handed it back and just bought a petrol car and we are much happier

I bought a 4 year old second hand EV from a dealer and that was a good choice. A couple of things have needed sorting but they were done under warranty. I wanted 2 years old and given the increase in the second hand market I would probably stick to 2 years next time round.

I have a Corsa-e and dp has an MG4. The latter has a range of about 300 miles and is a really good option. I mostly drive shorter distances so 180 miles works well for me, and I love driving it.