Buying an electric car: what actually to check

Reviews concentrate on range, acceleration and screen size. The specifications that determine whether you enjoy owning the car are mostly elsewhere.

Charging

Peak DC charging rate, and more importantly the ten-to-eighty time. The second figure captures the shape of the curve; the first does not.

A car peaking at a high figure for ninety seconds and then tapering is slower in practice than one with a lower peak held longer.

Battery preconditioning, and specifically whether it triggers automatically when navigating to a charger.

This is the difference between a fast winter charge and a very slow one, and cars vary enormously in how well it works and how discoverable it is.

Onboard AC charger rating. Determines home charging speed. Seven kilowatts is adequate for most; eleven is useful with three-phase supply.

Connector standard, and adapter availability in your market.

Thermal management

Liquid-cooled battery, not air-cooled. This affects fast charging speed, cold weather behaviour and long-term degradation.

Air-cooled packs still exist in some cheaper models and are a meaningful compromise.

Heat pump for cabin heating, rather than a resistive heater.

The difference in winter range is substantial — frequently the single largest specification difference between two otherwise similar cars in cold climates.

Efficiency, not range

The number to compare between cars.

Range is battery size multiplied by efficiency. A large battery masks poor efficiency.

Efficiency — watt-hours per kilometre, or miles per kilowatt-hour — determines running cost, charging time for a given distance, and how much the car is affected by cold and motorway speed.

An efficient car with a modest battery is generally a better proposition than an inefficient one with a large battery, and it is cheaper and lighter.

Practical details that matter daily

Charge port location. Determines whether you can reach chargers laid out for other cars, and whether the cable stretches at home.

Whether you can set a charge limit and whether it persists. Charging to eighty percent daily is standard practice for most chemistries, and it should be one setting, not a per-session choice.

Scheduled charging, and whether it can be set once rather than repeatedly.

Regenerative braking behaviour, including whether one-pedal driving is available and whether the setting persists between drives.

Route planning that accounts for battery state, weather and charger availability, rather than simply showing chargers on a map. Built-in planning that preconditions the battery is worth far more than a good screen.

Physical controls for wipers, demist and volume. Several manufacturers have moved everything to touchscreens, and safety bodies have started to notice.

Battery and warranty

Chemistry. LFP packs generally tolerate charging to one hundred percent routinely and have longer cycle life; NMC packs have higher energy density and prefer an eighty percent daily limit.

Neither is better in the abstract. Knowing which you have determines how you should charge it.

Warranty terms, specifically the guaranteed capacity retention and the mileage limit.

Whether module-level repair is available, or only whole-pack replacement. This materially affects the worst case out of warranty and varies enormously by manufacturer.

Servicing and repair

Insurance cost, quoted before purchase. It is frequently higher than for an equivalent combustion car and occasionally dramatically so.

Repairer availability for high-voltage work in your area, which affects both insurance and downtime.

Parts availability, particularly for models from newer manufacturers.

Software and the long term

A category of consideration that barely existed a decade ago and now matters.

How long will updates be provided, and does the manufacturer state a period? A car dependent on connected services may lose functionality when support ends.

Are features subscription-based? Several manufacturers have moved capabilities behind recurring payments, sometimes for hardware already fitted. Check what is included permanently.

Does the car work without a data connection? Navigation, preconditioning and in some cases climate control have been implemented as connected features. A car that loses core functionality when the mobile network is unavailable is a poor purchase for rural use.

What happens to the app? Charge scheduling and preconditioning are frequently app-only. If the app is discontinued or the account service ends, those functions go with it.

None of these questions appear on a specification sheet and all of them affect a car you intend to keep for a decade.

The used market

Increasingly where the value is.

Check battery state of health, which most cars will report and which some manufacturers make difficult to access. Independent testing services exist.

Check charging history if available — a car that lived on DC fast charging has had a harder life than one charged at home.

Check that any connected services the car depends on are still supported, and whether they are transferable.

And check the warranty remaining on the pack, which is the largest single risk in a used EV and is frequently transferable.