I've kind of wondered how much I should care about that. What's the chances the battery life is hurting in a used EV, versus the chances the last owner of a used ICE car only changed the oil every...
I've kind of wondered how much I should care about that. What's the chances the battery life is hurting in a used EV, versus the chances the last owner of a used ICE car only changed the oil every 40k miles? Is a used EV actually more risky than a used ICE? Genuine questions coming from someone who will be needing a new vehicle in the next 4ish years, and would like to go all electric.
EVs require almost no maintenance whatsoever, so you don’t need to worry about that side of things. Battery health is pretty correlated to mileage, so you just need to do research on how a...
EVs require almost no maintenance whatsoever, so you don’t need to worry about that side of things. Battery health is pretty correlated to mileage, so you just need to do research on how a specific model holds up with mileage.
Yeah. I believe the Technology Connections guy just put out a video saying that battery life on used EVs is less of a worry point than previously reported. I'm sure a lot of people are looking at...
Yeah. I believe the Technology Connections guy just put out a video saying that battery life on used EVs is less of a worry point than previously reported.
I'm sure a lot of people are looking at EVs with the soaring gas prices.
The major ones to worry about are pre-2017 EVs with older battery management systems. The biggest offender is the Nissan Leaf, which didn’t have active cooling until last year I believe.
The major ones to worry about are pre-2017 EVs with older battery management systems. The biggest offender is the Nissan Leaf, which didn’t have active cooling until last year I believe.
The leaf has always had active cooling AFAIK. My 2012 model had liquid cooling and I actually broke it down because I didnt realize I was supposed to top off the coolant. Other ones to worry about...
The leaf has always had active cooling AFAIK. My 2012 model had liquid cooling and I actually broke it down because I didnt realize I was supposed to top off the coolant.
Other ones to worry about are the Mitsubishi I-MiEV and the Fiat 500i. There are probably more to watch out for if you are outside of the US.
I was curious, so I looked. The Leaf does have a fan, and coolant, but only the former is for the batteries. The latter is for the motor, inverter, converter, and on-board charger (basically all...
I can only speak to Tesla's and their battery degradation is pretty well documented nowadays. There is a sharp drop in people's first year of ownership but the degradation then levels off and is...
I can only speak to Tesla's and their battery degradation is pretty well documented nowadays. There is a sharp drop in people's first year of ownership but the degradation then levels off and is fairly mild. I think Tesla's claims of ~10% degradation over 100k miles has proven to be true. My cousin purchased his Model 3 brand new in 2022, which then had an estimated 270 miles of range. Nowadays, some 40k miles in, he gets ~250 miles, which tracks with what I've read for estimated degradation. People lose ~5% in the first year and then ~1% each year after that, assuming an average of 15k miles/yr.
Beyond that, as others have pointed out, maintenance on EVs is fairly limited. You have your standard brakes/tires that need to be replaced in regular intervals and then like washer fluid but there's nothing else you really need to worry about. As u/nukeman points out though, if you go for the "first" gen of EVs that came onto the market 2012-2018ish, you do have to pay more attention to the battery tech and battery management tech. I'm not knowledgable enough here to really give advice but depending on your usage and the climate in your area, those EVs could also be worth looking into.
Overall, I will say I don't think EVs are inherently more risky than ICEs. Low maintenance + low running costs is truly something I envy.
You should care about battery health and take a look at it. A better analogy would be an ICE car with a motor that is about to dissinegrate and the seller is trying to hide the symptoms and claim...
You should care about battery health and take a look at it.
A better analogy would be an ICE car with a motor that is about to dissinegrate and the seller is trying to hide the symptoms and claim it's all good.
I don't think a used EV is more risky than a used ICE. As we get more and more old EV's we'll get a better baseline on how they hold up. I'm curious to see what 20+ year old EV's will look like.
Across the U.S., people like Shepard are finding that used EVs are more attractively priced than ever — and are snapping the cars up as a result. It’s a welcome development in what has otherwise been a tough year for an industry that’s key to combatting climate change.
With the oil shock created by the war in Iran, used EVs are likely to become even more attractive to shoppers. Nationally, gas prices have surged to over $4 per gallon on average; in California, the country’s EV capital, they’re nearing $6. Unlike new EVs, used versions have mostly reached priced parity with gas-powered cars, according to new data from Cox Automotive — making the preowned versions the cheapest way for people to ditch increasingly costly-to-fuel gas cars in the near term.
[...]
New EV sales dropped by 28% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, per Cox. That was primarily driven by the loss of federal tax credits under the megabill passed by Republicans in Congress last year.
By contrast, used EV sales increased by 12% over the same period. The reason? Declining prices. The average cost of a used EV is now within about $1,300 of a comparable gas vehicle, Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, said during a March forecast call. “That affordability shift has clearly shown up in the data,” she said, “significantly expanding access for mainstream buyers.”
In the U.S., new EVs still outsell used ones. That’s likely to change as the market matures, since the overall used car market is roughly three times as large as the new car market. Right now, EVs make up only about 2% of the used car market, but that share is growing, according to Cox data.
[...]
These latest data points aren’t coming out of left field, said Scott Case, CEO of Recurrent, a data-science firm specializing in collecting information on used EVs. His company tracked a 35% increase in used EV sales from 2024 to 2025, as well as a consistent downward trend in pricing, with 56% of used EVs selling for $30,000 or less as of January.
[...]
In particular, a lot of those used EVs are coming off leases made popular by a “leasing loophole” that allowed automakers and dealers to offer a full $7,500 federal tax credit, without the income qualification and manufacturer restrictions that applied to claiming the credit on direct sales.
[...]
And the latest vintages of used EVs offer an impressive value when compared with their gas-powered equivalents, Case said. Recurrent’s latest data indicates that a used EV is a year newer and has nearly 30,000 fewer miles than a similarly priced used gas car.
I have a 2023 Ioniq 5 on the way in the next week or two. I needed to buy a second vehicle and I just couldn't see myself getting a pure gas vehicle again. Our only vehicle we have had for the...
I have a 2023 Ioniq 5 on the way in the next week or two. I needed to buy a second vehicle and I just couldn't see myself getting a pure gas vehicle again. Our only vehicle we have had for the past couple of years has been a 2017 Chevy Volt, and honestly, if GM made another one today I would be all over it. A PHEV with 60-70 miles of EV range with a gas generator for back up would be my ideal vehicle.
When the Ioniq 5 arrives in a few weeks, I am thinking of just going on a long road trip to see what the charging conditions will be like.
Probably not as bad as you think. Just make sure you enter in fast chargers to the GPS otherwise it won't precondition the battery and you won't get the max charge rate out of the car. The Ioniq...
When the Ioniq 5 arrives in a few weeks, I am thinking of just going on a long road trip to see what the charging conditions will be like.
Probably not as bad as you think. Just make sure you enter in fast chargers to the GPS otherwise it won't precondition the battery and you won't get the max charge rate out of the car. The Ioniq doesn't have manual battery conditioning as an option. That means you need to update the infotainment system to get new charger locations. Luckily Hyundai lets you download the update to a usb drive from their website so you can do it yourself unlike older vehicles.
Our friend at Technology Connections has you covered, and is even himself using a 2023 Ioniq 5. Keep in mind this video is a road trip in extreme cold. The car does great, and with warmer weather...
Our friend at Technology Connections has you covered, and is even himself using a 2023 Ioniq 5. Keep in mind this video is a road trip in extreme cold. The car does great, and with warmer weather does even better.
Biggest risk is battery quality/life, right? How easy is it to check & verify that nowadays?
I've kind of wondered how much I should care about that. What's the chances the battery life is hurting in a used EV, versus the chances the last owner of a used ICE car only changed the oil every 40k miles? Is a used EV actually more risky than a used ICE? Genuine questions coming from someone who will be needing a new vehicle in the next 4ish years, and would like to go all electric.
EVs require almost no maintenance whatsoever, so you don’t need to worry about that side of things. Battery health is pretty correlated to mileage, so you just need to do research on how a specific model holds up with mileage.
Yeah. I believe the Technology Connections guy just put out a video saying that battery life on used EVs is less of a worry point than previously reported.
I'm sure a lot of people are looking at EVs with the soaring gas prices.
The major ones to worry about are pre-2017 EVs with older battery management systems. The biggest offender is the Nissan Leaf, which didn’t have active cooling until last year I believe.
The leaf has always had active cooling AFAIK. My 2012 model had liquid cooling and I actually broke it down because I didnt realize I was supposed to top off the coolant.
Other ones to worry about are the Mitsubishi I-MiEV and the Fiat 500i. There are probably more to watch out for if you are outside of the US.
I was curious, so I looked. The Leaf does have a fan, and coolant, but only the former is for the batteries. The latter is for the motor, inverter, converter, and on-board charger (basically all the HV components except the batteries).
I can only speak to Tesla's and their battery degradation is pretty well documented nowadays. There is a sharp drop in people's first year of ownership but the degradation then levels off and is fairly mild. I think Tesla's claims of ~10% degradation over 100k miles has proven to be true. My cousin purchased his Model 3 brand new in 2022, which then had an estimated 270 miles of range. Nowadays, some 40k miles in, he gets ~250 miles, which tracks with what I've read for estimated degradation. People lose ~5% in the first year and then ~1% each year after that, assuming an average of 15k miles/yr.
Beyond that, as others have pointed out, maintenance on EVs is fairly limited. You have your standard brakes/tires that need to be replaced in regular intervals and then like washer fluid but there's nothing else you really need to worry about. As u/nukeman points out though, if you go for the "first" gen of EVs that came onto the market 2012-2018ish, you do have to pay more attention to the battery tech and battery management tech. I'm not knowledgable enough here to really give advice but depending on your usage and the climate in your area, those EVs could also be worth looking into.
Overall, I will say I don't think EVs are inherently more risky than ICEs. Low maintenance + low running costs is truly something I envy.
You should care about battery health and take a look at it.
A better analogy would be an ICE car with a motor that is about to dissinegrate and the seller is trying to hide the symptoms and claim it's all good.
I don't think a used EV is more risky than a used ICE. As we get more and more old EV's we'll get a better baseline on how they hold up. I'm curious to see what 20+ year old EV's will look like.
From the article:
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I have a 2023 Ioniq 5 on the way in the next week or two. I needed to buy a second vehicle and I just couldn't see myself getting a pure gas vehicle again. Our only vehicle we have had for the past couple of years has been a 2017 Chevy Volt, and honestly, if GM made another one today I would be all over it. A PHEV with 60-70 miles of EV range with a gas generator for back up would be my ideal vehicle.
When the Ioniq 5 arrives in a few weeks, I am thinking of just going on a long road trip to see what the charging conditions will be like.
Probably not as bad as you think. Just make sure you enter in fast chargers to the GPS otherwise it won't precondition the battery and you won't get the max charge rate out of the car. The Ioniq doesn't have manual battery conditioning as an option. That means you need to update the infotainment system to get new charger locations. Luckily Hyundai lets you download the update to a usb drive from their website so you can do it yourself unlike older vehicles.
Our friend at Technology Connections has you covered, and is even himself using a 2023 Ioniq 5. Keep in mind this video is a road trip in extreme cold. The car does great, and with warmer weather does even better.