Buying a used electric car is not the same job as buying a used petrol one, and the people who get burned are usually the ones who treat it like it is. Forget cambelts and clutch wear for a minute. On an EV nearly all the value, and nearly all the risk, sits in one component: the battery. Get your head round that and everything else falls into place.
The battery is the car
A traction battery is the single most expensive part of an electric car by a mile: replace one out of warranty and you're often looking at a bill that exceeds the value of the whole vehicle. So the question that matters isn't "how many miles has it done", it's "how healthy is the battery". The good news is that fear has run ahead of the facts here. Batteries degrade gently, not suddenly: real-world data on EVs now well past 100,000 miles points to something like 10–15% capacity lost over the first eight to ten years. A car that did 200 miles on a charge when new might do 175 now. That's a smaller range, not a broken car.
Ask to see the battery's state of health (SoH) figure; many cars display it in a service menu, and any decent EV specialist can read it. A car showing 90%+ after a few years is doing fine. Anything that's dropped unusually far for its age and mileage is worth questioning, because it points to hard use, a lot of rapid charging, or a duff cell.
Warranty: the number that changes the maths
Most manufacturers cover the battery with a separate, longer warranty than the rest of the car: commonly eight years or 100,000 miles, guaranteeing it won't fall below around 70% capacity in that window. On a three or four-year-old used EV, that often means several years of battery cover still remaining, which quietly de-risks the whole purchase. Check the exact terms for the model and the in-service date, and confirm whether the cover transfers to you as a new owner (it usually does, but confirm). A used EV with battery warranty left is a very different proposition from one just past it.
Leased batteries: check who owns it
A handful of early EVs, some Renault Zoes especially, were sold with the battery on a separate monthly lease rather than owned outright. The car is cheap to buy precisely because you inherit a battery rental that can run to £50–£100 a month. That's not a scam (it came with a health guarantee), but you must know before you buy whether the battery is owned or leased, because it changes the real cost of ownership completely. The paperwork will say; ask for it.
Charging, cables and the boring practical bits
Check the car comes with the cables it should: a Type 2 charging cable alone can cost a few hundred pounds to replace. Ask how it's been charged: a car that lived on rapid DC chargers its whole life is theoretically harder on the battery than one topped up gently at home overnight, though modern thermal management has softened that difference. And think about your own charging before you fall for the car: home charging is where an EV saves you real money, and if you can't fit a home charger the sums look very different.
The ordinary checks still apply
An EV is still a car. It still needs an MOT from three years old: no emissions test, but brakes, tyres, suspension and structure are all examined, and, crucially, every test records the mileage. That means the same clocking checks apply: a mileage line that jumps or stalls is as suspicious on an EV as on anything else. Tyres deserve a hard look too, because instant torque and extra weight chew through them faster than people expect, and a fresh set on a big EV isn't cheap.
And yes, they pay tax now
The "free to tax" era is over. Since April 2025 electric cars pay VED like everything else, and any EV that cost over £40,000 new also gets stung by the expensive car supplement in years two to six, which pulls in a lot of the desirable used ones. If an advert still trades on free road tax, the advert is out of date. Factor the real annual cost in before you decide it's a bargain.
Before you view
Run the reg through a full history check first. It confirms you're looking at the car described (make, model, colour, registration date) and lays out the MOT record, mileage trend and tax position in one place, so you arrive knowing which questions to ask about the one thing the DVLA record can't see: the health of that very expensive battery.