Used electric cars, how important is mileage?

Used electric cars

After a century of internal combustion engines, the world is experiencing an epochal change made possible by the continuous evolution of lithium batteries and electric motors, increasingly efficient and performing; it is thanks to this evolution that today the market is filling up with cars, motorcycles, bicycles and whatever in-between you can think of, driven by battery-powered electric motors. We are still at the beginning of the diffusion of electric cars, but some models have already been on the market for several years and also the used market is starting to become interesting, but how do you evaluate the purchase of used electric cars? What are the parameters to evaluate to buy a good car that can offer us years of use without malfunctions? In this article we will answer these and other questions, such as the one in the title.

Less moving parts, less wear, less maintenance

When you buy a used endothermic car, one of the the first aspects that are taken into account are the mileage of the car: in general, fewer kilometers traveled means less wear on all the moving parts of the car and therefore greater longevity. When it comes to electric cars, it is necessary to review this approach, as an electric motor has far fewer moving parts than an endothermic one and this translates into drastically reduced maintenance and less wear related to the kilometers traveled. A normal electric car mounts the motor on the axle or directly on the wheel, thus the transmission and its maintenance disappear, but there are other aspects to consider when buying a used electric car, such as the longevity of the battery.

Let's start with the engine: as already mentioned, an internal combustion engine has many more moving parts, many more oils and fluids inside and is much more subject to wear than an electric motor. Think about how many interventions are done during a normal service of an endothermic car: oil filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, timing belts or chains, sensors, oils and fluids, maintenance interventions on the catalytic converter, the list is really long (almost as much as the list of moving parts in an internal combustion engine) and largely refers to components that are completely absent on an electric car. This means that when looking for a used car you can easily aim for specimens with higher mileage without fear of having to do major maintenance on the car's engine, but beware, because not all that glitters is gold. | }
The need to make expensive interventions on an electric car cannot be ruled out a priori, but the same can be said of an endothermic car: on average, the operating costs of an electric car are significantly lower , and the amount of maintenance or repairs to be done will be less than with an endothermic.


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Battery, longevity and autonomy

The aspect of battery longevity is of fundamental importance on electric cars; As the spread of electric cars is still relatively recent we still don't have much data to average battery life - there are stories of Tesla being able to travel more than 500,000 km before needing a new battery, but it will take time before having a more complete picture of the situation.

Obviously when you buy a used electric car you have to take into account the state of health of the battery, taking into account that the average life of a lithium-ion battery with today it is estimated between 10 and 20 years, but the data tells us that on average the car is changed more frequently, thus leaving room for maneuver for the purchase of used electric cars.


A certain level of degradation of the battery capacity is inevitable, and consequently it will be necessary to take into account the reduction in the range of the car: if originally a battery is sold with an autonomy of 400 km, once it has dropped to 80% efficiency, a -20% range must be considered, which will therefore have dropped to 320 km. From this point of view, battery technology is improving day by day, and in the future we will have much stronger batteries even in the long run.

The possibility of having to change the entire battery pack scares many potential car buyers electric, but in reality it is such a rare event that it becomes almost irrelevant; after all, how often do you need to replace the entire engine in an endothermic car? The answer is the same, practically never, and if it were to happen we would find ourselves in both cases in front of a very expensive intervention, to the point of prompting many to change the car directly.

In conclusion, the mileage on used electric cars is an important aspect to take into account or not? The answer is yes, but with several quibbles that we have tried to explain in this article, while what is certain is that an electric car that has traveled many kilometers will still need much less maintenance than an endothermic counterpart. We are only at the beginning, in the future replacing a battery could become easier and cheaper, after this first phase in which electric cars are still very expensive and niche.

To date, the purchase of electric cars used is a viable solution without major worries, as long as you do the necessary checks on the state of health of the battery pack.