Electric vehicles are in a transition period of sorts, as their technology, engineering, and manufacturing continue to rapidly evolve. To the consumer, that means plunking down your hard-earned cash can be a gamble, even as some automakers offer enticing incentives on EVs. And because so many of them are all-new models, you often don’t have a clear idea of what their reliability is going to be five to 10 years down the road, so pulling the trigger on an EV at full MSRP can be a tough call.
Given all that uncertainty, right now, your best bet may be picking up one of the models on our list of the best used EVs. Sure, your posterior won’t be the first to grace the driver’s seat, but these vehicles have known reliability records and have already been thoroughly vetted in the real world. EVs tend to depreciate aggressively, so your dollar can go further if you buy used.
We’ve taken an aggressive approach to making our recommendations; any vehicles with below-average dependability or less-than-stellar safety ratings got the ax. MotorTrend’s editorial acumen has also been applied to our roster of the best used EVs; we aren’t suggesting anything we wouldn’t put in our own driveway. Read on to see what made the cut.
About MotorTrend’s methodology: We consider many of the same factors in our new car rankings system. Our research focused on 3–5-year-old vehicles, which means we chose vehicles from the 2022–2024 model years. We use data from the residual value experts at Black Book to start our search, and any vehicle we recommend must have earned an IIHS Top Safety Pick award. An above-average J.D. Power quality and reliability rating is a plus.