EV newbie - help

You won't have to spend 20k for a car to do your commute.

Evs are like all cars, they depreciate.

The likelihood of anything major happening your battery is very slim. It will just gradually degrade but will still be able to be used for many years.

If anything they should cost you less as they age, as ICE cars tend to have more things go wrong with them as they get old. And sometimes very expensive fixes.

If you can stretch your budget by €500 you can buy a brand new nissan leaf 40kw from a dealer in the Midlands. Can't remember which one but it was posted on boards during the week. The nissan dealer in Fermoy is selling them for €21k.

The warranty on the leaf is...

5-year/100,000 km warranty on all EV dedicated components

3-year/100,000 km for standard Components

12-year anti-corrosion warranty 30,000 km service interval

8-year/ 160,000km warranty on battery

OP what car do you drive today and what cars are you looking at? Anything with a 40kWh battery or an ioniq 28kWh battery will get you 130km a day worst case. Ideally you want a car with 60+kWh battery but they are a premium.

In terms of an out of warranty car it is an issue when you go to sell. Buyers are probably unjustly worried even just from a piece of mind point of view. If you are unwilling to risk driving a car out of warranty ideally you need a car with a long warranty in terms of mileage and age, although your mileage is relatively high and even a used car with low mileage will soon become a car with high mileage. You might be best buying the car with say 60,000km and selling with 110,000km which might minimise depreciation and keep you in the sweet spot of depreciation and driving a car within warranty. Some EVs are very expensive but with your commute you may save 2,000 per year on fuel costs which may help offset depreciation. You need to buy well and sell well as depreciation will probably be biggest annual cost.

@meath12 can you clarify if the mileage you do is 130km per week (Mon - Fri) or per day Mon - Fri i.e. 650km per week?

+1 on this advise. 28 Ioniq was my first EV for a 140km commute, sold it for 12K after 2.5 years and 110K kms, owned me nothing and it was still a great car. For your commute it wont let you down and you will have a few quid in your pocket.