The second-hand vehicle market has always been great to save a few hundred bucks on a Car as long as you know what you’re looking for and can spot a bad one when you see it. However, spotting a good bargain for Electric Vehicles is not as easy as their fuel-powered counterparts. Actually, there’s a very big issue when it comes to used electric vehicles.
The issue is that you can’t really figure out how good the battery health is on a used car. This is true even for cars from Tesla and Volt. Some used car dealers are even using software tricks to show customers that the car battery is actually at full health while in reality, it could very well be on its last breaths. This spells a big challenge for manufacturers as to when putting down cold hard cash for an electric vehicle, many customers also look for a good resale value.
No one is going to keep the same car forever and people usually look for a good used-car bargain before even considering buying a brand new car. The second-hand market is a vital part of the industry so there should be proper ways to check the condition of a used electric vehicle’s battery. The data on which car batteries keep their charge for how long is sparse. Tesla claims its Model S and X batteries can retain 80 percent capacity even after 200,000 miles.
Sadly, not many EV makers disclose battery health information to customers. Reports say that the Nissan Leaf is the only car in the US that shows a battery health meter. However, it doesn’t have active battery temperature management like Tesla so the Leaf’s battery degrades much faster.
We may even see regulators stepping up and pushing manufacturers to make battery health information easily available to the customer. It should be easily accessible and tamper-free. The California Air Resources Board even suggested that vehicle batteries must be able to maintain at least 80 percent of health for 15 years or 150,000 miles.
Good thing you read this article before going out to buy a second hand Tesla.