Worried about fuel prices? Thinking of swapping your petrol car for an EV? You’re not alone. In recent months there’s been an up-swing in interest in second-hand electric cars, which means that if you’re going to make the switch, it’s not a bad idea to do so before all those people idly browsing the classifieds decide to actually go out and buy something. At that point, there’s a chance that sensibly-priced EVs will start to shift pretty rapidly, and finding one might be increasingly tricky.
Fortunately, it isn’t the case so far, and if you look hard – and use the CarGurus deal rating tool to help you – it’s still possible to find some stonking deals.
The cheapest EVs on the market are, as you’d expect, older examples. These early EVs didn’t give you the sort of range you might expect of a more modern car, but they’re still very much worth considering if you just want a cheap runaround for urban use and shorter trips, say for a daily commute to work and back.
Take the 2018 Nissan Leaf I found. It’s a second-generation car – much more modern than the first – though with the smaller battery. Mind you, it’ll still manage around 100 real-world miles, even on a cold winter’s morning.
This one’s done a very reasonable 69,000 miles, comes with a full year’s MOT and six months’ worth of warranty, and as an N-Connecta, gets heated seats, a heated steering wheel, and a 360-degree parking camera. All this for £6,150 feels like a steal, especially when you realise that that price is around £1,080 less than it should be worth, according to its CarGurus Instant Market Value (IMV).
Perhaps, though, you’d like something that can manage a bit more range. In which case, can I point you in the direction of the Kia Soul? The third-generation of this tall, boxy, extrovertly styled hatchback isn’t all that well-known – perhaps because it was overshadowed by the more practical (but plainer) e-Niro – but these days it looks like terrific value.
Its 64kWh battery means you get an official range of 280 miles – which probably means anywhere between 220 and 250 in the real world – and that’s more than enough for those longer trips.
Early Souls came in First Edition form, fully loaded with toys, including a heat pump, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, and even a Harman Kardon sound system with a subwoofer.
Yet they’re absolute bargains. Even with all this finery, a 2020 Soul with just 28,000 miles on it can still be yours for just £11,600: a whopping £2,284 less than its IMV. Don’t forget that this example will still come with a year left of its manufacturer warranty, too.
The Soul’s small, 315-litre boot means it works best for couples or young families that don’t need too much luggage space. If you need more than that, might I suggest a Hyundai Ioniq 5?
The Ioniq 5 comes with 520 litres of luggage space in the boot, plus a further 54 under the bonnet, making it a brilliant family car. In fact, so strongly do I feel about the Ioniq 5 being a great used buy that last year, I put my money where my mouth is, and went out and bought one to serve as our family hauler.
And I haven’t regretted it once; its sliding rear seats make the luggage space really flexible, and we can get as much as 260 miles’ worth of range when the weather’s good (this drops down to around 220 on most winter mornings). And when we want to charge it up, its super-fast charging speeds mean it can zip from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 18 minutes.
Ours has the 73kWh battery that the Ioniq 5 was released with. But you can now buy a 2022 Ioniq 5 Premium just like ours, with the upgraded 77kWh battery, for just £18,000. That should get around 10-15 miles more range; and this one’s going for £1,879 less than it’s worth.
But what if you want something a little more upmarket than a Kia or a Hyundai? Well, you might be thinking ‘Tesla’, but here’s a Model 3 rival that flies under the radar a little, despite it coming with a more prestigious badge and a much smarter cockpit: the BMW i4.
How about a 2022 i4 M50? This is a true sports saloon, with scintillating handling and face-melting performance: 536bhp is enough to knock the socks off some supercars. Yet the i4’s fastback tail opens to reveal a big boot, and the rear seats are more than spacious enough to carry the kids in the back.
Sounds like a car that can be all things to all people, and as you’d imagine, it cost all the money when it was new, too; almost £60,000, to be precise. Yet the example I found, resplendent in deep San Remo Green and with just 17,000 miles under its belt, is on sale for around half that: £30,500, to be precise, which is a thumping £2,158 less than its IMV.
It just goes to show that bargains are still out there, and not too tricky to find, thanks to CarGurus. But if you want to jump on the bandwagon, you’d better act fast, because while fuel prices stay high, cracking deals like these won’t hang around for long.
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