Three second-hand electric cars for less than 10,000 euros

With the price of new cars skyrocketing, inflation making it difficult to make ends meet, and uncertainties surrounding fossil fuels at their peak in recent years, not a few people have thought about the possibility of buying a second-hand electric car. However, there are some conditions that must be taken into account before making the purchase of a second-hand electric car, especially everything related to the actual state of the batteries.

While in order to buy a second-hand combustion engine vehicle until now we have focused on various aspects, such as maintenance and scheduled and performed oil changes, the sound of the engine, and the state of the clutch and the gearbox, electric cars represent a new scenario. Potential buyers do not quite know what to hold onto to know if the vehicle that interests them is a good purchase. Let's see.

The essential element that we must validate before deciding whether to buy a second-hand electric car is the actual state of the vehicle's batteries, a very expensive element in a hypothetical case of replacement. A homemade tool to get an approximate idea of the state of the batteries is the SoH (state of health) system, which can be checked using an Android phone with the CanZE application and a Bluetooth adapter connected to the vehicle's OBD port.

Nissan Leaf I (2010-2017)

The first-generation Nissan Leaf was a sales success in its time, and it became the best-selling electric car in history until the arrival of Tesla's Model S, Model X, and Model 3. The first-generation Leaf is a simple, practical, and versatile car for urban or interurban use, which we were able to test in depth nine years ago. However, the first-generation Leaf had an air-cooling system for its battery pack that in the hottest regions of the world (such as our country between the months of May and October) can cause accelerated deterioration of the batteries and the loss of the vehicle's properties and range.

Excessive heat can cause lithium-ion batteries to operate above their ideal temperature, which causes overheating that leads to premature wear of the battery pack. It is highly recommended to carry out a reliable test of the vehicle's battery status before buying a first-generation Leaf, which, it is worth saying, has a quite tempting price: it is possible to find units with low mileage at prices around 5,000 or 6,000 euros. A very attractive price for a model that, let us remember, was a good electric car.

Renault Zoe (2013-2024)

The Zoe was the first mass-market electric vehicle manufactured by Renault, which we were able to test just ten years ago, a test that still describes the strengths of this urban electric vehicle quite well. Nevertheless, the Zoe suffered from some mechanical problems related to the braking system that affected units manufactured before 2014, as well as some issues related to the electric motors manufactured before 2017.

Finally, there were also problems with the 41 kWh battery pack manufactured between 2017 and 2018 due to a manufacturing defect that made it impossible to recharge them, although the affected units should have already been checked by the manufacturer. The price of the Renault Zoe with about 70,000 or 75,000 kilometers should be around 7,000 or 8,000 euros.

Smart Forfour II (2014-2021)

An electric car with space for four occupants, an aspirational finish, and a very effective setup. That was the second-generation Smart Forfour, which we also were able to test five years ago and which ended up convincing us due to its balance between space, utility, design, performance, and urban agility. This is surely the best second-hand electric car that can be found on the market, and its price should be around 9,000 to 10,000 euros.

However, some units of this Smart Forfour have had problems with the DC-DC charging module, which is responsible for transforming high-voltage energy into 12V electricity to charge the car's auxiliary battery. 

Bonus: Volkswagen e-Golf (2014-2020)

If we can afford to stretch the budget a bit to the 15,000 euro threshold, we must consider the Volkswagen e-Golf option. I will point out the two major drawbacks it has: its real-world range is just over 200 kilometers and its batteries do not have active cooling, as in the case of the Leaf, which in hot countries like ours can negatively affect the health of the batteries.

As for the rest, the e-Golf seems to me one of the best electrics of its generation, ahead of its time, and we were able to test it thoroughly eight years ago: it left us with a very good impression. Volkswagen, in a decision that the years have proven to be ill-advised, withdrew it to make way for the new ID.3, a compact car that we can find on the second-hand market for just over 19,000 euros, but which in my opinion did not improve much on the e-Golf.