Source
r/whatcarshouldIbuy•
FreedomToasts

What used EV to buy?

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a cheap EV to purchase used. This would be a beater car, a vehicle to drive around locally, so it doesn't have to have great range, I could get by with 50 miles on a charge. I want it to be cheap, under $10K. And this is probably not realistic, but I'd like it to be as fun to drive as possible.

A bit of background: I'm a car geek. I've been daily driving stick shift cars for 25+ years. At this point I drive a '15 Nissan Xterra PRO-4X 6MT. The guilt of driving this relative gas guzzler around town for errands is bumming me out, and having an EV as a second car would be a nice way to offset a bit. I have solar at my house, so juicing up the EV with sun seems like a win. But I'm hoping with electric drive torque and a car that handles decently will up the fun factor of driving it a bit.

Anyway, any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Posted Jan 7, 2020, 6:55 PM UTC

24
aphreshcarrot•

Avoid the Nissan Leaf. It doesn’t have active cooling for the batteries and range drops drastically over time, just really poorly made.

I’d consider the fiat 500e (dirt cheap, Bosch made electric powertrain is solid).

If you can swing a Chevrolet Volt I’d go that way for sure. Prices are approaching $10k. They’re plug in hybrids, however the plug in range is like 40 miles so you’ll likely never need the gas engine to kick in.

7
Spicy-Pants_Karl•

The range on the leaf definitely drops off, but I think the build quality is better than most nissans. Just need to be careful about which one you buy... I got one without the DC fast charge and the battery is in pretty good shape. Even with the passive battery temperature management, the car does OK.

No matter what car OP picks up, it will be fun. My other car is a manual truck, and I end up in my leaf more often than not. The instant torque and response makes it fun to drive, even though it's still an econo-box at heart. The 500e is probably more fun, but Leafs (leaves?) are fine.

2
WeldAE•

For range you need a car where you only use ~80% of the full range on a daily basis. So if your daily driving is around 50 miles then you would need 50 * 1.2 = 60 miles of range. At such low ranges, the 80% rule doesn't cover the next problem which is one extra errand is going to put you in trouble. I'd recommend upping the minimum actual range to 80 miles just to cover your bases.

The problem is that anyone other than Tesla and maybe Porsche don't give you real range numbers. Even Tesla's range is only if you drive ~65mph on non-cold days. Tesla's just have enough range that 99% of people don't notice that driving 80mph on 20f days lowers their range a 20%. Cars with batteries this low also don't have the ability to manage their battery effectively so by the time you buy them used for $10k they have lost ~30% of range already. I'd look for a car with a new range around 100 EPA miles and then try your best to make sure it has ~80 miles EPA as it currently stands and you should be in good shape.

3
polakinTO•

Had the Gen1 Volt for a couple of years and the instant torque never got old. Commute to work was about 40km and in 2 years time I've filled it with about 500L of fuel.

I'd get one again when it's time for one for sure. Highly recommend.

2