Considering a used EV? Here are 3 things to know

If you’re in the market for a car, you might be one of a growing number of people considering a used EV. In the past month alone, Cars.com says searches for used EVs jumped 25.5%, pointing to how quickly interest is shifting. Gas prices likely won’t drop much anytime soon, even if the Strait of Hormuz can stay open. And with hundreds of thousands of used EVs coming off lease this year, consumers have affordable options, even though the federal tax credit went away last year.

You get more for your money than with used gas cars: for the same price as a five-year-old Toyota Camry or RAV4, you can get a newer Tesla Model 3 or Volkswagen ID4 with tens of thousands of fewer miles, according to Recurrent, a company that tracks EV data.

Here’s what to know if you’re shopping for a used EV.

Battery life is better than you think

First, you don’t need to worry much about the battery. “EV batteries are lasting a lot longer than most people expected—even people that study electric car batteries every day,” says Andy Garberson, head of growth at research at Recurrent. The company tracks data from 30,000 EV owners across the U.S., and says that among cars that were made in 2022 or later, only 0.3% have needed battery replacements because of degradation or failure. If older EV with first-gen batteries are included, the number is still low, with 4% needing replacement.

Performance is surprisingly good over time. Take the example of a 2023 Nissan Ariya, an EV that Recurrent recommends. Three years after it came out, its average real-life range is 226 miles on a full battery charge, a stat that’s better than its official EPA range. In another three years, it’s likely to drop only slightly to 220 miles on a charge.

Range for any EV varies depending on conditions like cold weather (the Ariya performs well in the winter, too, keeping 83% of its range). You can access Recurrent’s data through dealerships or listings on Edmunds and Cars.com to see stats for any used model throughout the year in your own climate, along with estimates of how much you can save on fuel and maintenance.

EV batteries aren’t the battery in a phone, which can see steep degradation. In an EV, the data shows that there’s actually a little more degradation in the beginning, but it slows down. “We’ve all had that phone that a few years old and the pace of degradation actually accelerates with time, and that’s just not the case with EVs that have sophisticated battery management systems and liquid cooling and just a lot of tech that’s there to preserve it,” Garberson says.

When buying an EV, you can ask the dealership for a battery health report, or take a car from a private seller to repair shop for a test. After checking the expected range based on the car’s age, you can also see how it performs on a test drive. Before a test drive, you can ask the dealership to fully charge the battery overnight.

If a battery does degrade significantly after you buy it, the manufacturer should replace it. Nearly all EVs sold in the U.S. include long battery warranties, typically lasting 8 years or 100,000 miles. (EPA performance rules require that EV batteries last at least that long.) If a battery drops to less than 70% of its capacity, the warranty should cover a replacement.

Buy the newest used EV you can afford

Newer models are a better choice than older EVs because EV technology has been improving so rapidly. Early EVs had different battery chemistry, but lithium ion phosphate (LFP) batteries became widespread in the 2020s—making batteries cheaper, safer, better at handling frequent charging, and longer lasting. The median range for an EV in 2023 was 270 miles on a charge; compare that to a 2017 Nissan Leaf, which started with around 84 miles of range. It makes sense to buy the newest used EV you can afford.

Like all cars, newer models also have better tech in general, including safety features and more options for autonomous driving. The 2023 Nissan Ariya, for example, comes with ProPILOT Assist 2.0, semi-autonomous technology that can assist with lane changes or passing slower drivers. The EV was expensive when new, and didn’t sell particularly well for that reason. But used models now sell for only around $25,000. “The used price made that car very appealing, because you’re getting a lot of car for the money,” says Garberson.

With a newer EV, you’ll also have more time left on the battery warranty if you need it. But buyers who choose older EVs do also have the option to pay for third party warranties through companies like Xcelerate Auto.

Consider the EV’s history

As with any used car, you’ll want to do a prepurchase inspection and also find out as much as you can about its past. An EV that was a rental car—like the thousands of Teslas dumped by Hertz—or a ridesharing or fleet vehicle, obviously would have seen more use. Still, that may be more of a negotiating tool than a reason not to buy it. Ridesharing EVs can hold up surprisingly well, like a 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E that still had 92% battery life after 250,000 miles on the road.

In theory, if the previous owner regularly used fast charging, that could degrade the battery faster, though Garberson says that real-life data hasn’t borne that out. “When we sit down with all of our PhDs that studied this stuff in school, they understand that at an academic level that fast charging degrades a battery faster,” he says. “That’s something that they know and can prove out in a lab environment. But when we look across all of the cars connected to Recurrent—and we even can segment by those that we know are fleet vehicles that are only fast charged—we can’t see that in the data.”

Buyers should also consider potential perks that carry over with the vehicle. Some used Teslas, for example, come with free unlimited charging that the next owner can use. Some software subscriptions also transfer.

In general, Garberson says, used EVs can offer buyers significant value, including cars that were expensive initially. “People are amazed that they can drive off a lot with a BMW SUV that has 350 miles of range for the price of a RAV4,” he says. “We’re at an interesting moment in time. This is going to be kind of an exciting year with some of the affordable new models that are coming out. But there are also going to be a lot of people trading in, and that’s going to put a lot of really nice used EVs on the market.”