Is Buying A Used EV A Smart Move?

It’s a common question we hear at P+B, and  the honest answer is still the same: yes and no.

That might sound evasive, but it reflects the reality of the used EV market far better than a neat headline ever could. Electric cars behave differently to petrol and diesel vehicles, and if you apply old rules to new technology, you can very quickly end up disappointed. So let’s slow this down and look at what actually matters.

Start with depreciation

Electric vehicles depreciate more heavily in percentage terms than internal combustion cars, particularly in their early years. That’s why a three-year-old EV can often be sitting on a forecourt at close to half of its original list price. For buyers, that feels like value and in some cases, it genuinely is.

But it’s important to be precise here. EVs don’t lose value faster over time. They lose more value over the same period. One year is still one year, but the drop is steeper.

That heavier depreciation is driven by a few key factors:

• Rapid advances in battery technology
• Improving real-world range with each new generation
• Shifting consumer confidence as EV adoption matures

All of that pushes older models down the value curve much quicker than many people expect.

Technology matters more than age

With a petrol or diesel car, a three-year-old model is usually just a lightly updated version of what came before it. With EVs, that’s often not the case.

In the last two to three years alone, we’ve seen meaningful jumps in:

• Battery capacity
• Charging speeds
• Real-world efficiency
• Software and driver assistance systems

That means a “used” EV isn’t just older. It can feel fundamentally behind the current market.

This is where battery health becomes critical. While most manufacturers offer strong battery warranties, typically up to eight years, degradation still happens. Range reduces gradually over time, and on older models that reduction is felt much more sharply because they started from a lower baseline. Range anxiety is rarely about daily commuting. It shows up when you need flexibility. Older EVs can turn occasional longer journeys into a compromise you didn’t expect to make.

Ownership costs won’t disappear

There’s also a misconception that once depreciation has happened, the pain is gone. It isn’t.

Buy a used EV for £30,000, keep it for three years, and sell it for £12–13,000, and you’ve still lost close to £18,000. The timing of the depreciation changes, but the cost is still very real.

On top of that:

• Used car finance rates are typically higher
• EV-qualified independent garages are still limited
• Main-dealer servicing can be the only realistic option
• Wear items like tyres can be more expensive due to vehicle weight

None of this makes used EVs a bad choice. But it does mean they’re not automatically the cheaper one.

Where leasing changes things

This is where EVs really break from traditional thinking.

Because depreciation is the dominant cost, leasing often makes more sense with electric vehicles than outright ownership. You’re insulating yourself from long-term value risk, staying within warranty, and upgrading more frequently as the technology improves.

Leasing a used EV doesn’t automatically mean lower monthly costs either. Rentals are driven by the gap between purchase price and residual value. If a vehicle is expected to depreciate heavily, that cost is reflected whether the car is new or used.

What leasing does give you is clarity. Fixed costs, defined term, and an easy exit into something newer and better when the time comes.

So…should you buy a used EV?

If you’re paying cash, understand battery health, accept range limitations, and plan to keep the car long enough to justify the numbers, a used EV can absolutely be the right decision.

But if you value certainty, up-to-date technology, predictable costs and flexibility, newer EVs, often on lease, tend to be the smarter long-term move.

If you want straight advice, properly thought through and grounded in how EVs actually behave in the real world, that’s where P+B can come in.