With fuel prices creeping up, I am keeping the Aero (30mpg) in the garage most of the time and relying on the trusty Peugeot 107 (50+ mph) for every day use and commuting.
I was casting my eye on old/second hand EV cars on Autotrader, but as ever, the main issue is the range available, especially on these older cars that have already had a life.
There are a lot of Nissan Leafs about, from about 2012 onwards, and Renault Zoes, Peugeot iOn, Citroen C-Zero and Mitsubish i-MiEV. Admittedly I'm looking at the cheap end of the market which is mainly 10 - 14 years old, but most of them seem to only have at best 120 miles range on the battery when new. Ads suggest that range in these older cars is probably likely to be 60 - 80 miles, if that.
So in theory, I could get one to just use for the 20 mile round trip to work and back, but I'd have to charge it over night every couple of nights or so, and I don't know how much that would cost weekly.
And then, I notice some cars come with a battery lease - which I assume protects you to some extent from that range anxiety, and if anything goes wrong with the battery, they replace it. But how much is the monthly lease?? That is not mentioned in any of these ads I've been looking at. And then what are servicing costs on EV motors etc?
Anyone got any experience of dabbling with older EV cars?
The other car that intrigues me a bit is the Toyota Prius. I saw one the other day that had over 300k miles on it, but had had a new engine and PHEV battery in the previous few months. There was another that was also LPG converted. Now I know these are all used as Ubers and minicabs, but if they are looked after and regularly maintained, are they worth a look? And how economical actually are they?
