Car Buying

The Best Used Electric Cars in 2021

The best used electric car depends mostly on what you need it to do. There are multiple reasons to buy a used electric car, and multiple purposes you’ll need to use it for too. There are some of the classics out there like the reliable Nissan Leaf or the Toyota Prius, who paved the way for electric cars, and there are also the mighty up and coming trailblazers like the model S and Renault Zoe who are performance leaders too.

We’re breaking it down into each of the most important categories that we see from the public when they’re buying cars to help you find what the best used electric car is for you personally, and help point you in the right direction of what could be the best car that you could ever buy.

The Best Used Electric Car for Distance Driving

One of the biggest downfalls of electric cars in the eyes of most people is their distance limitations. The range of an electric car can be any way for some 60ish miles right through to boasts of up to 300 on a single charge. The difficult part is, they’re both true. Electric cars are often purpose built, and as a result, the range they have to offer can change massively, but if the range is the most important thing to you, the Tesla Model X is likely the best used electric car for you.

The Tesla Model X in any form seems like a great car. It is technically an SUV, and it has all the bells and whistles of most other Teslas on the market. It also has the famed Tesla performance to match. The 2017 model of the Model X had to boast around 270 miles of range from a single charge, which is a market leading figure for a used electric car. Prices for that start at around 50,000 upwards for good mileage.

The Best Used Electric Car for Comfort

Comfort is another big factor for many people looking for a car, whether it’s a used electric car or not. Although any car can be a comfortable ride, it’s generally much easier to have the best experience in a 4×4. They have the suspension, the space, and the height to enable a truly seamless experience, as well as room inside for all kinds of intricate features.

The best used electric car that we can suggest for this has to be the Jaguar I pace. Jaguars are famed for their luxurious brand in all forms of their cars, the electric variants are absolutely no different. They have everything you could want from a comfortable vehicle, and prices for the 2018 model start at £40,000 – £50,000. This is the oldest you’ll find, as it only came out in 2018.

The Best Used Electric Car for Speed/Performance

Many electric cars are actually faster than practically any other car on the road. The nature of how they drive means they have incredible acceleration in most cases, and their weight due to the battery means that they often have the handling to match this too. One of the best examples of this is the Tesla Model S.

The Tesla Model S is one of the fastest cars on the road in general. It boasts a 0-60 time of just over 2 seconds when in its highest performance mode, “ludicrous”. This is faster than even many supercars, and it’s extremely difficult to find something faster, especially in an electric vehicle. You’ll usually find one of these from 2017 with good mileage at around £60,000.

The Best Used Electric Car for Practicality

One of the most important areas of any vehicle is its practicality. Having comfort or speed is all well and good until you need to use the car for your daily life challenges or have a much more restricted budget than these high ticket vehicles. That’s where the VW e-Golf comes into play.

The VW e-Golf is a great car. It’s arguably the best all rounder as far as an EV goes. It has great speed, great range, and a great price tag too. It’s still a hatchback with 5 doors, meaning you can fit in the friends and family and still fit the weekly food shop in the back, all without breaking the bank. The e-Golf is also remarkably comfortable to drive into which is a massive benefit many others in the price bracket don’t have. In this case, that price bracket is around £15,000 – £25,000, and that’s even for cars only produced in 2019 and with next to no miles on the clock.

The Best Used Electric Car for City Driving

The best used electric city car is a difficult title to give to a car, but it is actually something a  huge number of people look out for. City driving, although it may only be over a small distance, can take hours out of someone’s day. It poses all kinds of nightmares, and efficiency, parking practicality, and general navigational abilities are all hugely important to their daily running.

With all of that in mind, for its pure city designed nature, convenient size, and its modest price and efficiency, the VW e-UP! Has to be the winner. It is one of the smallest electric cars on the market while still being able to boast over 150 miles of range in most newer models. That also has the big benefit of even cars as old as 2013 only having around 10k miles on the clock too, and costing under £10,000.

The Best Used Electric Car for Tight Budgets

Money is a massive part of buying a car. Cars can be hugely expensive after all, especially when looking at electric vehicles since there are so many technological advancements every single day. With that in mind, however, the best used electric car in terms of a tight budget has to be the Nissan Leaf.

The Nissan Leaf was one of the first electric cars in the UK, helping the EV market reach where it is today. Even for a next to new model made in 2021, you can pick one up for around £20,000. For one that’s more like 2015 however, you can get one even under £10,000, and they’re highly efficient in their charging capacity and maintenance too.

The Best Used Electric Car for Longevity

Lastly, the final category we will explore is the longevity of electric cars, and which is the best one that is likely to last the longest. In all honesty, the quality and usability of electric cars have occurred in the last decade. They are likely to be the only new cars allowed to be sold in the UK by 2035 after all. There are many misconceptions about their battery life out there which still causes doubts for many potential buyers, but if you’re in this category, likely the best used electric car for longevity has to be the Tesla Model 3.

The Tesla Model 3 is essentially the most accessible and mass produced production car made by Tesla. It is the middle of the road, practical and affordable everyday car that has all of the benefits that EVs have to offer, on top of the innovative nature of Tesla and their brand. That means regular updates, trailblazing technology, and increased popularity alike. All of those go hand in hand to give a huge amount of confidence to the vehicle as well as a solid reputation of reliability and support.