The Best Electric Cars on the Used Car Market

The e-Golf is a pretty solid starting point for anyone looking to get behind the wheel of their first EV. The e-Golf is built almost entirely from the components of a regular Golf, which has got to be one of the easiest cars to live within the real world. When electrified, the e-Golf can offer up to 144 miles of range from a single charge, costing roughly 4p per mile versus 14p per mile for the petrol equivalent. The starting price for a new e-Golf is £25,320 excl VAT. The e-Golf is pleasantly popular though, so there’s already a good few examples popping up on the used-car market around £20,000 with less than 15,000 miles. That’s a pretty big saving for a car that will save you considerable amounts throughout ownership…

The i3 has already become a pretty iconic electric-car thanks to its unique design and also the fact it was one of the very first fully electric models from a premium manufacturer. Buyers tend to adore its looks as well as the futuristic interior as well as the typically-BMW refinement levels. Brand new models start from £38,555 - which is far more than people would typically pay for a car fo this size. Don’t worry though, there are plenty of models available on the used car market. 2016 models have already dropped below £18,000 but we would recommend looking for 2017/18 models with below 20,000 miles, as these models are on sale for around £21,000 and they have better battery life. There are some hybridised models available at this price with the petrol range extender, though these aren’t fully electric and therefore are not VED-exempt.

The I-PACE was only released in 2019 but there’s already been a fair few dripping on to the used car market for one reason or another. This has got to be one of the most desirable fully-electric cars from a traditional manufacturer and, because it’s a Jaguar Land Rover product, it is properly luxurious inside. Brand new these start from £64,495 but by a model less than a year old and you can save yourself the best part of £10,000. All of these will still be in warranty with a healthy amount of battery life left too, so you should be able to get close to 292 miles from one full charge. Have a look and see what's available near you...

After the USA and Japan, the UK is Nissan’s third-biggest market for the Leaf. It was the best selling pure electric on the market for quite some time and, because it was introduced back in 2011, there’s a huge range of used models to choose from at varying price points. We’d recommend looking at models from 2017 onwards, which can now be had from around £12,000 - which is nothing compared to their £26,845 starting price for brand new models. These 2020 models will have the higher-powered 40 kWh battery which was previously an optional extra and it's good for up to 168 miles on a single charge and ‘MPGe’ (miles per gallon equivalent) of 112 - which puts into perspective how much more affordable these cars are to run and own.

Now, the two most exciting models are a struggle to find. The Audi e-tron, which won numerous world car of the year awards in 2019, has only been on sale for a few months so there are only a couple of used models hanging around, below £20,000 - which is a solid saving on a nearly new car.

The other top-dog would be a Tesla, who now have 3 models on the market, the Model S saloon, Model X SUV and Model 3 ‘junior saloon’. You’ll do well to find any of the latter two on the market, as they’re very recently launched. There are one or two examples of the high performance ‘100D’ Model S floating around on the used car market around the £45,000 mark though, which is a big saving over a brand new model…