As Of 2019, The Increase In Battery Electric Vehicles & Plug-In Hybrids Are On The Rise

If you are in the market for purchasing a used electric vehicle, here are some handy tips to help you find the best vehicle for you.

Is There An Increased Interest In Propulsion System Cars?

The Rise in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids has taken off this year but in 2013, there were only 1,600 battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids coming off the assembly line. In comparison, during the second quarter of this year, the number has grown to 4,659.

British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec are the leading markets for these cars. La Belle Province has shown a 1.2% increase in sales for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. To date, more consumers are seriously considering buying a secondary or primary vehicle. Pre-owned or used electric vehicles seem to be what people are shopping for. Just like our standard gas-powered vehicles, you need to take into consideration various factors including should you buy a used electric car?

To influence more consumers to purchase these cars, there must be an incentive or at least a rebate! British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec are offering rebates at this time but, unfortunately, rebates are only available for new purchases or leases. So, if you are looking to buy a used electric car, you are left standing in the rain with no program to turn to.

For instance, if you bought a new 2018 Nissan Leaf, you can knock off $14,000 from the $36,000 base price. Is that even close to the cost for a used Leaf that you are in the market for?

About The Battery’s Lifespan:

The exact percentage of battery life on electric vehicles is not really known. It’s believed that an electric vehicle will lose value with the age of the battery and usage. There are several different kinds of lithium and nickel drive batteries used in electric vehicles and have a limited number of recharge cycles before the performance drops off.

Take into consideration, if you start with less than 300 kilometers of range and then add Canada’s winter temperatures on top of that, you must be very sure the drive batteries are in really good condition from the start.

If you want to buy a used electric car, you need to take a few other things into consideration. In some cases, the condition of these batteries can be determined by the total distance recorded in the car. Should the owner of an electric car use their cars in a stationary mode, such as supplying power to households in emergency outages, this could confuse the actual readings. In some cases to offset the costs for utility bills is becoming quite popular for people to recharge the electric vehicles during hours that are low rates then power their homes during peak hours. That said, there is no distance recorded during these hours but recharge cycles are being used up the same way as if they were on the road.

Don’t Rely On Numbers – Always Take A Longer Test Drive:

You should request taking a longer road test when shopping around. Ask the retailer to have the electric vehicle’s battery fully charged then take, at minimum, a 50-kilometer route to measure the battery’s range, using the readout from the instrument panel.

On Purchase:

If you decide to purchase an electric vehicle, make sure you register your ownership with the manufacturer. This is extremely important to guarantee you receive all possible recall notices. Since most electric vehicle batteries have an 8-year warranty, having the ownership transfer done by the automaker will give you some remaining coverage to the very expensive feature of your electric vehicle’s drive train.