Used car survey

How much money is it exactly to go green these days? And what do I get for my money? Lets hit autotrader and see whats out there in the used EV market. We find ample selection in the “family-car” category. A gently used Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ioniq, or the Kia Soul, can certainly become yours for less than 30 000 CAD, shopping in the Toronto area.

A gently used electric car offers great value for your hard earned dollars. Value in mathematical terms is what you get divided by what you pay. To get the most value for your money, you have to think hard about what you really need. Generally, you should aim to get a car that excels at 80 % of what you do. That’s not to say we should ignore the other 20 %, but as we will see, electric cars are sold on range, not fast charging speed which is arguably more important (see a previous post here).

Methodology. I did this search in November of 2021 using Autotrader.ca. There are other used car sites out there, but autotrader.ca does have filters we need to find used EVs locally (I assumed 100 km from Toronto, ON). We are exploring ways to go green on a modest budget, so I set a limit of 35 000 CAD. At that price point, you could buy a new Nissan Leaf (factoring in a 5k federal EV incentive (source)). The CAA maintains a list of electric vehicles available in Canada (source). This list does seem a bit out of date, as some recent premium EVs are missing (such as the Audi E-tron). For a used EV shopper on a budget, that’s fine. Also, I had to find at least three used EVs, just to screen out “once in a blue moon” deals. That said, lets see what we found:

The good news is that there is ample selection, 44 in total. Impressive given the car inventory crisis these days (source). That said, these 7 brands I found are mostly small family cars (hatchbacks and the like). These work great in the city, and avid readers of this blog will discover that yes, you can travel all over Ontario in a used EV such as these. Because electric SUV’s and pickup trucks only recently became available, it will be a few years before we start to see these in the used market, so it will be a few more years yet before those of us looking to purchase a used electric SUV or a pickup truck will find those in the used market (Apparently, that could be 80% of Canadians, at least if these sales figures are to be believed).

Do note that at the time of this writing, the Chevy Bolt EV is undergoing a battery recall campaign. You should be aware of this if you are considering the Chevy Bolt. This will undoubtedly affect pricing in the used market, GM’s communication may also play a role (see this show for a wonderful discussion from several Bolt owners). How this all plays out remains to be seen, my gut feel is that the Bolt’s price might be suppressed in the near term, but eventually I do hope that reason will prevail, after all a 2017 Chevy Bolt with a brand new battery pack is kinda like a brand new EV at a fraction of the cost.

The Nissan Leaf also has a known #rapidgate issue owning to its lack of active battery cooling. While personally, Ive never encountered #rapidgate, and I have taken 2000 km epic journeys through Northern Ontario (see this post). Several Leaf owners report slower than expected rapid charging on long road trips, especially in warmer climates with generous speed-limits. More on #rapidgate here.

My 35 000 price limit was too low to see Tesla’s in any meaningful volume. I did find just one 2013 Model S with over 200 000 km on the odometer that came in just under my budget limit. As with electric SUV’s and pickup trucks we need to wait a few more years because Tesla, being a premium EV maker, only recently began selling cars in volume.

More money will also get you further. Be it using our EV performance model (see this post), or the range estimates from the US based Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Do note that I assumed fast charging ability where possible, so you would be wise to select a used EV that has fast charging.