Electric Vehicles

Used Hyundai IONIQ (2018) owner here. Buying is difficult, because most sellers know little about electric cars.

I recommend buying cars that come directly from a leasing contract.

Those cars often have low mileage, were serviced regularly and early problems fixed via warranty. Demand and prices for used cars are low because newer EVs have higher mileage in comparison.

Take a OBD dongle with you and read the battery SOH.

Also Check the Manufacturer warranty terms before buying.

All in all - buying a used EV was (longterm) the least expensive option for me and also less risky.

Electronic Systems tend to have more problems early on and way less, once they are "stable".

I recommend.

(But Teslas are a whole chapter for themselves. I heard horror stories with their proprietary systems and app-based-services. Maybe someone else can elaborate)

I got a used bolt, but because of the battery recall, it had just had it's battery replaced by the manufacturer. It's been doing really well for me, pretty indistinguishable from new. Except that I guess they forgot to fill up the coolant loop when they replaced the battery, so I needed to do that at a dealership. But it was free at least.

I bought a 2 year old, 2017 BMW i3 and have had basically no range reduction. I primarily charge at home on a level 2 charger. The i3 didn't have a ton of range to begin with, so if you live in a colder climate, make sure you account for losing some of the stated range during colder months.

I bought a 2015 leaf back in 2016. Has held up incredibly well. Range has dropped by 2-3 bars during ownership, which translates to going from around 90 estimated miles to around 60. I drive it around 20-30 miles a day and usually end up with around 50% battery left. The only real work has been standard maintenance replacements: cv boot, 12v battery, trunk lift hydraulics, tires.

Coincidentally, I’ve converted my wife to preferring electric cars over ice too, so we have a second 2022 leaf with the larger battery. So nice from the never caring about gas and lower maintenance perspectives.

Second hand Renault Zoe user here. I have the model from 2020 with 52kWh battery. Things are pretty ok I think as far as the interior and exterior, but we had major issue with the engine that had to be swapped (good the car was under warranty still in the dealership we bought it from). For the rest it's pretty smooth ride. The range of the car in spring/summer gets to about 350km so its pretty good. The SOH is 91.3%. Ranault's warranty on battery is still active until 2028 or 80 000km or when battery's SOH drops below 75% so for now I am not worried about this. I think once the battery gets low and outside of warranty there will most certainly be more developed infrastructure of third-party battery module maintenance so it should be possible to get the pack to it's original state for not gigantic sums of money.

I'm second owner of a 2016 Kia Soul EV. I have no complaints. The heating system was DOA but the dealership had it fixed. That's the one thing with heat pump vehicles, make sure that system works or you'll have a potentially expensive fix on your hands.

I asked for a batter state of health reading, they took it to Kia to have that done, no big deal.

I would avoid older Nissan Leafs and compliance cars like the original Fiat 500e and VW e-Golf. These had low range to begin with. The Leaf is air cooled, which is hard on the battery. The compliance cars from six years ago or more are old and you’ll be lucky to get 60 miles out of the original battery pack.

If you buy an older Bolt, make sure the battery pack has already been replaced by GM. You can probably ask a Chevy dealer to look up the service history based on VIN.

I've had a second hand Leaf and currently drive a second hand Zoe. They are the two best cars I've ever had.

The Leaf was quite old, but the battery was still over 90%. It definitely might have something to do with living in Northern England, though - our climate isn't exactly stressful for batteries!

The Zoe was only a few years old, and the battery is essentially as new. I only replaced the Leaf because my sister-in-law lives over an hour away, and we couldn't do the return trip on a single charge.

Not a second hand owner here but I can speak to buying and ownership from the other perspective. 2018 Tesla model 3 lr rwd. Buying process was straightforward, place order online, fill out forms online, bring required papers and checks to pickup, leave with vehicle. I did have some paint chips/scratches from shipping which I raised as an issue to the delivery manager. They put me in a loaner while car was out for repair at body shop. Content with repairs no cost to me.

Looking forward, the past 5.5 years of ownerships have been pretty smooth. No major issues. Some buggy software back in 2018/2019, when they were making tons of new features and updates. It's now pretty stable/mature. All of which were OTA updates. The only physical recall I had was the cable for the backup camera can rub and wear through. So they replaced the harness there during one of my other visits at no charge.

Bring in twice a year for winter/summer tire swap and brake lube. Have had lower control arms go under warranty and a crack in a control rod out of warranty.

Service centers were hit or miss in terms of smoothness. They seem to have gotten better with my more recent experiences.

One of the three 16amp onboard charges has failed. Technically in warranty, but I didn't address it for over a year due to other factors, which is on me. So I've just been riding it out with 32amp charging instead of 48. Still plenty fast for home charging and I don't really see the value in replacing it right now. This doesn't affect supercharging (fastdc charging).

As for software, I did get the FSD package when it was $5k. And got the retrofit 3.0 hardware upgrade (no cost). It's great on highway and I use it pretty regularly. City streets, which is in beta, has been pretty janky but has shown continued improvement. It's not quite smooth enough for passengers imo, but it does some impressive maneuvers at times. I expect some further refinement in here, but I don't expect it to ever achieve what the name it was marketed under. I wouldn't pay much more than $5k for its current capabilities.

My biggest gripe with the car honestly is the auto wipers can be pretty sub par due to their vision based system. Have to use manual mode somewhat often.

No significant battery degradation at 55k mi. Get about 305 on charge. Was 310new and they technically bumped it to 325 sometime afterwards. It's charge as high as 317, but I road trip fairly infrequently to have many data points here.

TLDR, I'd buy another Tesla, but I'd also shop around in 15 yr when I expect to be in the market again.