I drive 40,000 km/year: Is an EV a bad idea

Most EVs come with a battery warranty that is limited to age and mileage

8 years and 160,000km seems to be fairly common, once one of those is passed then your battery is out of warranty

Is this a problem? Not necessarily, it isn't like the battery will be immediately toasty after the limit. However it will likely hurt resale value with half the warranty used up

I think a lot of EV owners are lower mileage drivers, but it's also worth bearing in mind that EVs that could realistically do 40,000km per year have only been generally available for less than 5 years

Personally I'd take a look at a 1-2 year old one, or even a pre reg model as opposed to buying new. There's some excellent bargains available at the moment which will make the potential depreciation less risky IMO

I'm going to assume you can get a home charger and you've looked at chargers along your commute?

Sounds like you drive around 200km per day which should be fine for an EV6, but never hurts to have a backup

If you're afraid of depreciation, then buy an ex-demo. It will have small mileage and have the biggest chunk of depreciation taken off it. Average 20% in the first year. And I've seen up to 25%.

It's the ideal solution.

I do a little more than half your mileage per year, but would have no problem whatsoever doing 40k per year, or double that. My SIL drives an i4 2 years now with well over 100k on the odo, probably around 150k+…I lost track. The more you drive the EV, the more you save on costs relative to an ICE vehicle as long as you are charging from home.

To give my opinion on your questions, as a full BEV driver since 2017:

1. I would say no. If you can show a healthy battery and a well minded car when selling, the depreciation should be like for like as long as you don't cherry pick. Both sides can play at that game.
2. Used is typically your best value proposition. An exception seems to be Tesla though, with the cost of buying new being not that much more than used for a 2 year old.
3. The same principles will apply for ICE and EV. Generally speaking, the big hit is from new to 3 years. After that, the slope isn't as steep. The one thing to watch is warranty and if mileage has extinguished it. If you buy a car privately with warranty, you can save a packet, as there is no benefit to buying from a dealer IMO unless trading in is what you need.

Rather than worry about annual mileage think about daily mileage. Using an EV is more like your phone. You want it to last all day, but you don't mind it being at 10% when you are going to bed as you can plug it in and it's fully charged every morning.

You never hear people saying a phone can do 6000 hours of uptime a year. You care if it will last the day.

So unless your daily mileage is regularly over 400km then an EV is going to serve you well.

the EV 6 is a much nicer car. I’ve the ID4 and my dad has the EV6. If doing 40km a year the EV6 will be more comfortable. And has 800V charging

I do 52,000 km a year. I have saved €4,000 in fuel costs after one year by going electric. I went with a new model 3 which was €44,000 at the time. One of the reasons I went for a new Model 3 is the LFP battery and the warranty (which in my case would be 3 years). I tend to keep cars for 7 years on average so depreciation is not an issue for me so I cannot comment on that. The LFP battery isn't great in the cold but it has better cycle life which means it will last a lot longer than NMC batteries. I typically use 40% of my battery every day. The battery would have to degrade by 50% for it to have an effect on my daily routine. By that time the rest of the car will probably fall apart first.

So yes an EV is suitable for your mileage provided you can charge at home overnight on a decent night rate tariff.

Just on the mileage of second hand EVs. If I use the same filter on DD, I get almost twice what you came up with on Carzone. Around 10% of the total. Also need to factor in the fact that a lot of sellers of high mileage cars leave the mileage out, so it's not really indicative. And since the vast majority of second hand EVs are from 2021 onwards (4,000 out of 4,700 on DD) high mileage examples would be rare enough.

Firstly when you say you bought used diesels- was that with a loan or outright?
If you bought your diesel cars without a loan, bear in mind you may need a loan to buy an EV that will do your long length trips.

If you need to pay back a loan, all your fuel savings by going EV will be wiped out.

It all depends on if you don’t have a loan to repay on your current diesel vs needing a loan to get a new EV that has good range.