What Are The Top 10 Best Used EVs Under £12,000 In The UK?

It’s no secret that electric vehicles tend to be a tad more expensive to buy new compared to their equivalent ICE counterparts. The same is true here in the UK, like it is everywhere else, given that EVs are a pretty young concept, so it’ll take time for all the trickle-down economics and the economies of scale to make electric cars truly reach cost-parity with ICE vehicles. So, does this mean that you should avoid buying electric cars now and wait? No, especially not if you know where to look, as the famed automotive data company, cap hpi, wants to showcase.

With extensive experience and a vast database of automotive valuation data and knowledge about market dynamics and pricing, they’re the sort of people you could trust to put a dollar figure on your car. Based on cap hpi’s research and analytics, over the past 12 months alone, they found that the average drop in market value for electric vehicles – with mileage around 30,000 miles and three years old – is around £5,000, or 19%. They claim that this is primarily due to market realignment, so it’s not expected to repeat, but it’s interesting, nonetheless.

Can You Beat The Electric Car Market?

Regardless, with all that data on hand, cap hpi was able to put a list of what they think – and I’m definitely inclined to agree with a lot of these – are the top 10 best used EVs that you can get, with a trade value under or around £12,000. With over 1 million electric vehicles driving around on UK roads today, whittling all that variety down to just 10 isn’t easy, but if you’re in the market for an EV, it might be worth considering cap hpi’s selection, instead. Besides, we know for a fact that EVs often depreciate very heavily once they leave the dealership lot.

Therefore, if you want the best bang for your buck, it’s way easier on your pocket to instead opt for a used EV. This is why cap hpi focused on three-year-old electric vehicles (with 30,000 miles on the clock), which is what they’ve found is the sweet spot for used EVs – they’re old enough, but not too old. On top of that, cap hpi further found that used EVs also generally have lower costs of ownership compared to buying one brand-new. Here’s what Chris Plumb, a senior valuations editor at cap hpi, has to say about this:

“Used EVs offer a marked saving over new vehicles with low costs of ownership. For the average motorist, there is a used EV to suit most consumer’s daily needs with the added benefit of offering lower carbon emissions.”

The Top 10 Best Used EVs To Choose From

The folks over at cap hpi have more to say based on their findings, too. They’ve found that it’s indeed proven that electric cars are cheaper to operate than their ICE counterparts. They have fewer moving parts, which aids in lowering maintenance and repair costs. Moreover, if you plan it out right and charge your electric car at home – either through solar power or by using off-peak electricity rates, like charging late at night and in the early morning hours – EVs are cheaper to recharge through the mains than filling your car up with diesel or petrol.

So, with that in mind, here are cap hpi’s top 10 best used EVs under £12,000 in the UK today (with the respective model years in parentheses):