EV Buyer Tips: Assessing Range on a Used EV
Assessing the range of a used electric car can be difficult, and occasionally, the seller does not even list the specific variant of an EV.
Some cars have different battery sizes, so making a quick assessment of the car’s range can really help in the car research phase.
A quick hack to get a secondhand EV’s range.
- Find a photo of the car’s dashboard.
- Locate the range (e.g. 255 km).
- Locate the battery state of charge (e.g. 65%).
- Divide the range by the percentage (e.g. 255 / 0.65 = 392 km max range).
NOTE: Only some vehicles have this kind of display on the dashboard.
Example 1: BYD Atto 3 for sale
Range remaining? 148 km Battery SOC (state of charge)? 32%
148 ÷ 0.32 = 462 kmThe max range for this Atto 3 is 462 km. It’s high – the WLTP range for a new Atto 3 is 420 km.
What’s happening here?
The range estimation on a dashboard is based on recent driving patterns.
If the owner drives efficiently in urban conditions, the range will be higher. If the owner has been driving on the open road or doing lots of accelerations, the range will be lower.
The dashboard has a clue—the vehicle’s efficiency of 13.7 kWh / 100 km. This shows how much energy is being used to travel 100 km (13.7 is efficient!)
There’s also an ECO sign, showing the car in ECO mode, which will give a higher range estimation.
Example 2: Hyundai IONIQ 5 for sale
This is very different from the Atto 3. Current range left: 341 km, battery percentage: 90 %. Estimate of total range: 379 km.
The owner says this is the 72 kWh IONIQ 5 (with 160 kW of power). A quick look at IONIQ 5 variants shows that this variant’s WLTP range is 481 km.
What’s happening here?
We can see an efficiency of 20.9 kWh/100 km. That’s really high – this vehicle has recently been doing a lot of highway driving and/or has been driven aggressively.
Interestingly, the EVDB highway range estimate for this is actually 375 km. It’s worth communicating with the owner to find the vehicle’s usage. In the above example, the IONIQ 5 was ex-lease and had been doing plenty of regional travel.
What kind of range and battery state of health can you expect from a used EV?
Most cars experience the most degradation in the first three years, often around 8-10% (generalisation)
After that, it levels off (see the EV battery deep dive), and very little degradation occurs.
However, some cars (Hyundai / Kia) still report very high battery SOH (after getting service tests). The battery management system may be beginning to use some of the battery buffer.
As a basic rule of thumb; if you are buying a 2018+ EV, expect a maximum range of about 10-12% less than the WLTP range (of the car when new).
There are always exceptions! One owner has a 2018 Hyundai Kona, which received a new battery in early 2022 as part of a recall. In 2024, the car still matches its original WLTP range.
