A woman in Nottingham bought a 2019 electric hatchback from a franchised dealer in March 2024 for about 14500 pounds. And the listing said the range was 168 miles, which is roughly what the manufacturer quotes for that model year on a full charge. She drove it home, charged it overnight, and the dashboard showed 94 miles. Not 168. Not even 130 on a warm day. She took it back the following week, and the dealer told her the range estimate. Varies with temperature and driving style, which is technically true. But also the sort of answer you give someone when you don’t want to talk about the battery.
An independent check using an OBD diagnostic tool showed the battery was sitting at about 72 percent. State of health, which, for a five year old EV with no active thermal management, isn’t unusual. But it is the kind of information that should have been on the listing rather. Than a range figure pulled from a press release. She ended up in a dispute with the dealer that dragged on for three months. And the Motor Ombudsman’s data suggests she’s far from alone.
In Q4 2025 alone, the ombudsman received 782 EV related disputes, 75 percent more than. The same quarter in 2024, and across the whole of 2025, the total hit 2805. Half of those complaints involved customer service failures, including inaccurate battery health information from retailers. The used EV market in the UK is growing faster than anyone really expected. Used EV transactions rose 57.4 percent in 2024 to reach 188382 units. And the growth rate between 2024 and 2025 ran at about 48 percent. Which is considerably faster than hybrids at 29 percent or plug in hybrids at 12 percent.
The reason is simple. Lease returns are flooding in. Around 123000 leased EVs were expected to come back onto the market in 2025. With projections of 329000 in 2026 and 650000 by 2027 and most of these are three or four year. Old cars from early corporate fleet adoption that are now being remarketed as affordable secondhand options. The average used EV now costs about 23000 pounds, down from over 30000 just two years ago. Which brings a lot of previously out of reach models into a price bracket where normal people can actually consider them. SMMT data shows 473348 new battery electric cars were registered in 2025, a 23.9 percent jump over 2024. And the used market is feeding off that growth as cars age out of their first or second ownership cycle.
An automotive data analyst at car Vertical who tracks used vehicle histories across Europe said that UK used EV. Listings have roughly doubled in volume since early 2024, but the quality of information accompanying. Those listings hasn’t kept pace, and battery health is the biggest single gap. The problem isn’t that batteries are failing. A large scale analysis of nearly 5000 EVs found average degradation of about 1.8 percent per year. And a consumer survey of 3595 owners showed that even at seven years, the average range loss was only 7 percent.
The problem is that nobody has agreed on a standard way to communicate the condition of a specific battery in a specific car at the point of sale, and until that exists, buyers are essentially guessing. I keep coming back to that Nottingham hatchback because it illustrates something that numbers alone don’t capture. The battery wasn’t defective, 72 percent state of health on a 2019 EV without liquid cooling is more or less what you’d expect, and the degradation data would categorise it as normal. But the buyer didn’t know that. She saw 168 miles on the listing and assumed that’s roughly what she’d get. Which is a completely reasonable assumption when you’re spending 14000 pounds on a car, and the range figure is sitting right there next to the mileage and the service history.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the car has to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose. And as described, and there’s a genuine question about whether a five year old EV with 28 percent capacity loss and no disclosure of that fact meets the “as described” test when the advertised range is based on new battery performance. The law hasn’t been tested on this in a meaningful way yet, and I suspect it will be soon. Given the volume of cars entering the secondhand market and the number of complaints the ombudsman is seeing. The dealer side of this is messy too, and I don’t think it’s entirely their fault. Most used car dealers don’t have the diagnostic equipment to check EV battery health in any standardised way, and even the ones that do are working with different tools that produce different readings depending on the manufacturer.
A survey reported that 90 percent of dealers want a standard battery health check for used EVs, which tells you something about how uncomfortable the trade itself is with the current situation. Just over a third think it should be government backed, 38 percent want an industry led scheme, and Labour’s 2024 manifesto actually promised to launch a battery health certificate programme, though as of early 2026, nothing has materialised. A handful of auction houses and approved used programmes have started offering in house battery reports, and a small independent dealer in the East Midlands started including state of health certificates with every EV sale in late 2024. But these are patchwork solutions, and they don’t help the buyer scrolling through private listings for a used EV with no battery data at all.
Current vehicle history reports can verify a lot about a used EV, mileage accuracy, damage history, previous registrations, outstanding finance, and whether the car was imported, but they cannot reliably tell a buyer the state of the battery because that data doesn’t flow through the same channels as registration and MOT information. It sits locked inside the car’s battery management system and can only be accessed with manufacturer specific diagnostic tools or aftermarket OBD readers, and even then, the reading you get depends on temperature, charge level, and how recently the car was driven.
The House of Lords has acknowledged this gap and called on the government to develop. An objective and reliable battery health standard, and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles has been working with UNECE. On technical regulations for state of health monitors, but there’s no implementation date and no mandate requiring sellers to provide this information at the point of sale. The Green Finance Institute surveyed over 2000 UK drivers and found that battery certificates and guarantees were ranked. As the top two things that would make people more willing to buy a used EV, and there’s actually evidence. That EVs sold with a health certificate fetch a few percent more and sell several days faster than those without.
So the commercial incentive is there, the consumer demand is there, the regulatory intent is apparently there. And yet most buyers are still walking onto forecourts with no reliable way to know whether the 23000 pound car they’re considering will do 200 miles on a charge or 140. EVs retain only about 49 percent of their value after two years compared to 70 percent for petrol and diesel. And a significant chunk of that depreciation gap comes down to uncertainty about battery condition. If you’re a buyer and you can’t verify the one component that represents maybe 40 percent of the car’s value.
You’re going to discount it in your offer, and if you’re a seller and you can’t prove the battery is healthy, you’re going to take a lower price than the car deserves. The leasing industry has been losing money on EV residuals partly because of this. Collective pre tax profit across the leasing sector fell 91.2 percent in one year, and one in five leasing companies posted a loss. Independent testing of several thousand used EVs hasn’t turned up a single defective battery yet. Which frankly should make everyone feel better about the technology, but also makes the lack of transparency at the point of sale even more frustrating. The batteries are fine. The information just isn’t getting to the people who need it before they buy.
Conclusion
The rapid growth of the UK used EV market highlights both opportunity and uncertainty. On one hand, falling prices and increased supply are making electric vehicles more accessible than ever. On the other hand, the lack of clear and standardised battery health information is creating confusion for buyers and challenges for sellers. While data shows that EV batteries are generally reliable and degrade slowly, the absence of transparent reporting leaves consumers making decisions without full confidence.
Moreover, dealers are not fully equipped to solve this issue alone, as inconsistent tools and a lack of industry standards complicate accurate assessments. Although there is clear demand from consumers, dealers, and policymakers for a battery health certification system, progress remains slow. Until a universal standard is introduced, uncertainty will continue to impact pricing, trust, and overall market efficiency.
Ultimately, the future of the used EV market depends not just on supply and affordability, but on transparency. Providing clear, reliable battery health data at the point of sale will build trust, stabilise resale values, and support the long-term growth of electric mobility in the UK.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is battery health important when buying a used EV?
Battery health determines how much range and performance a vehicle can deliver. Since the battery is a major component, its condition directly affects the car’s value and usability.
Are EV batteries unreliable over time?
No, studies show that EV batteries degrade slowly, with an average loss of around 1.8 percent per year. Most batteries remain functional for many years without major issues.
Why don’t used EV listings include battery health information?
Currently, there is no universal standard or requirement for reporting battery health. The data is stored within the vehicle and requires specialised tools to access.
What is being done to improve EV battery transparency?
Governments and organisations are working on developing battery health standards and certification systems. However, no mandatory system has been fully implemented yet.
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