The Expert Podcast

As the market for used electric vehicles starts to become much more popular almost to the point where um the increase in used electric vehicles is rising faster than used gasoline vehicles the old suggestions and advice about how to buy a used car needs some updates and so here's a great article from hot cars where it talks about everything you should know before buying a used electric car getting your hands on one can be one heck of a gamble sounds pretty ominous to me so let's talk about what they mean by all that.

So you want to buy a used vehicle you want to get rid of petroleum car whether or not you want to do that or not that's that's your decision but there are a couple things you should know before you consider buying any used ev whether it's online on the internet first of all is electric car going to work for you and you know your daily routine will dictate that if you have a very long commute and you can't charge at either end you might have a problem if you live in an apartment you park outside where you can't charge at home or if you live in an office where you can't charge at the office that might be an issue for having an electric vehicle however if you have a shorter commute and you have a place to plug in at one or both ends then that might be a good choice electric vehicle charging stations you can usually find in big cities but if you're in a small town or places where there's not a lot of charging you might have to rely on your home base to charge it up here's the biggest thing.

A normal vehicle inspection is not the same on an electric vehicle so obviously you want to check you know suspension brakes things like that that every car has but there's no gas motor engine on electric vehicle so what is important yeah you need a thorough inspection by a mechanic but a lot of the mechanical components don't exist on electric vehicle but there is something that's extremely important to look at and it's not something like you'll find on carfax because it'll detail damage and repairs but it's not a substitute for an inspection by a trusted mechanic with electric vehicle experience because here's a cutaway of an electric vehicle there's no engine no transmission your drive line is right here these two little metal cylinders that's your drive motors everything is in there this large plate is your battery those are the things that have the most probability of having expensive repairs and even the electric motors those are pretty um pretty reliable they're pretty durable.

They don't have you know lubricated parts there's no engine oil there's no reciprocating parts electric motors last a long time let's put it that way but the most important mechanical component is the cooling system to keep the batteries safe the battery itself can wear out we've talked about that before and other videos get into that but if the cooling system does not keep that battery at a good temperature it can ruin the battery very quickly the battery can cost eight ten fifteen thousand dollars we've seen some teslas where it's twenty thousand dollars so if the cooling temperature is either too high or too low it could dramatically reduce the efficiency and have an eight thousand dollar plus expense to replace the entire battery system because you know the battery not only is it the part that you have to replace but to get at that battery you have to take apart the car think about it if this car was all put together and the body and frame and seats and interior and everything was on top of this how do you get to that battery some you might be able to get out from underneath some you might be able to pull out from the side but the bottom line is battery replacement is heavy labor.

Here is an example of how that works there's a active cooler with fluid to cool the lithium ion battery system which has a lot of cells and that system has to work some systems use just air like a leaf most batteries have a pretty good warranty but if for some reason there's an exclusion to that warranty there's damage improper maintenance or if the vehicle was purchased used there may be an exclusion because it's transferred to a new owner so be aware that electric vehicles could be a significant opportunity for future or modern vehicle ownership but the inspection and pre-purchase due diligence is a little bit different than a gas vehicle and you want to take that into account when you are looking shopping and buying a used electric vehicle or ev.