Buying second hand

Substantial_Ad_3386 | 2026-03-10 05:42 | 15 views

I'm looking at the possibility of buying a second-hand EV shortly which will be my first BEV. I'm located rurally so will probably be travelling 6 or so hours to Sydney to make a purchase. What are the recommended checks, ie battery SOH and how would I go about doing them given the distance involved? Are NRMA pre purchase inspections worth while and do they cover EV specifics or are there better ways?

Comments (3)

net_fish 2026-03-10 08:53

If you're doing a 6 hour trip home I'd suggest running the trip through A Better Route Planner to see if you will need to charge on the trip. if you do make sure you have the apps for the charging networks you need on your phone so you have as smooth a trip as possible. I'm not sure what the go is with pre purchase inspections on EV's but if they report SoH you're probably get something around 94-95% or higher depending on age and km's on the clock. otherwise it's mainly just all the same things as any other car relating to body/suspension/etc The only other thing to be aware of is if it's a MY22-23 Atto 3 (12" centre screen, silver panel past the C-pillar) it's worth checking if it's had the Tesla Supercharger fix done. if not you won't be able to use Tesla Superchargers. there is a fix but it's around $300-700 bucks

Substantial_Ad_3386 2026-03-10 09:12

The trip home will also be an adventure. ABRP looks good, Thanks for the advice.

paulvigo 2026-03-11 20:58

Byd are all LFP batteries, and given how long they have been in Aus your car won’t be old enough for significant battery aging. As long as the thermal system is in order, battery SOH is unlikely to be an issue… though a battery check is always worth it on such a large purchase. Batteries tend to age quicker at first (unless they have a large safety margin), then age slower for the next decade, so don’t worry about light degradation in a young car as it should flatten out. (At least that is the case for BYD vehicles. Kias/Hyundais may seem to have no degradation for years due to large invisble buffers, then drop off a cliff.)

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