Why 100,000 Miles on a Used EV Is No Longer a Red Flag

The odometer has always been the first thing a used car buyer looks at, and passing 60,000 or 70,000 miles has long been treated as the moment a car's value falls off a cliff. A study of 47.4 million MOT tests, commissioned by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) and carried out by the research organisation New AutoMotive, has now put that instinct to the test using official DVSA records. On electric cars, at least, the instinct looks out of date.

The gap opens at around 60,000 miles

At lower mileages there is next to nothing between the two. Between 20,000 and 40,000 miles, 12.0% of electric cars failed their MOT against 11.7% of petrol cars, and the researchers matched cars on age as well as mileage, since Britain's electric fleet is much younger than its petrol and diesel equivalent.

The pattern changes after that. From roughly 60,000 miles the MOT failure rate for electric cars stops climbing and levels off at approximately 16%, while petrol and diesel failure rates carry on rising. Among cars aged three to eight with 90,000 to 120,000 miles on the clock, 16.5% of electric cars failed against 22.1% of petrol cars, which the researchers put at around 25% less likely to fail the test. Beyond 120,000 miles, 16.0% of electric cars failed against 23.5% of petrol cars.

Two details about the method are worth holding on to. Only Major and Dangerous defects, the categories that cause an MOT failure, were counted, and comparisons control for both the age and the mileage of the cars involved. Toby Poston, chief executive of the BVRLA, said mileage is one of the first things people look at when buying used, and that "passing 60,000 or 70,000 miles can have a big impact on how a vehicle is perceived".

Older electric cars are staying on the road

The second finding is about how long the cars last at all. Of cars at age 15, 94.6% of electric cars returned for a further MOT within 30 months, against 88.1% of petrol cars, an implied road-exit rate of 5.4% against 11.9%. Road exit covers cars that are scrapped, exported or declared off the road, so the study does not claim that every car missing from the MOT records has been destroyed.

The same data argues against the idea that older electric cars survive only as low-mileage second cars. Between the ages of four and 16, electric cars recorded higher median annual mileage than petrol cars, and at age 12 the median was about 4,920 miles a year against 4,410 for petrol.

Where electric cars still cost you money

Tyres are the clear weak spot. Across the dataset, electric cars recorded approximately 1.8 times as many tyre defects as petrol cars, with the problem most pronounced on some earlier electric models that were adapted from combustion-engine platforms.

Suspension, often assumed to suffer from the weight of a battery, came out better. Between 60,000 and 90,000 miles, electric cars recorded 4.7 suspension defects per 100 tests against 6.1 for petrol cars.

Brakes produce a mixed picture. High-mileage electric cars had substantially fewer brake defects, while older, low-mileage electric cars showed more friction-brake defects, which the researchers attribute to corrosion linked to the brakes being used less often. Hybrids also performed strongly in the analysis, and in several categories recorded lower MOT failure rates than either petrol cars or battery electric cars, so this is not a story about one powertrain winning everywhere.

What an MOT cannot tell you

An MOT is a roadworthiness test. It covers brakes, tyres, suspension, steering and lights, and it does not measure battery state of health, degradation or charging performance. The study does not cover software faults or repairs carried out under warranty either. Anyone buying a used electric car still needs battery data and a full history check alongside the mechanical picture, which is why the numbers in our guide to reading battery health evidence and our used EV checklist matter just as much as a clean test sheet.

Poston was blunt about the limit of his own study's message: "This isn't an argument for buying a used EV without doing your homework. Buyers should look at its history, condition, tyres and battery health just as they would scrutinise the engine, gearbox and service history of a petrol or diesel car." The assumption he wants retired is narrower than that, and worth quoting in full: "What we can now challenge is the idea that an electric car with 80,000 or 100,000 miles on the clock should automatically be regarded as worn out."

Ben Nelmes, chief executive of New AutoMotive, framed the mechanical side of it: "High mileage isn't a proxy for poor condition in the way buyers have traditionally assumed. The data suggests the mechanical simplicity of an electric drivetrain starts to become increasingly valuable as cars accumulate miles."

Why it lands now

The timing of the research matters as much as the numbers. This has been the year the second-hand electric market found its feet: 110,761 used electric cars changed hands in the second quarter, a record, and prices have been climbing since the spring, with three-to-five-year-old models up 9.4% year on year in August on our used price tracker. Most of that supply began life in company and leasing fleets, which is exactly why so much of it carries higher mileage. The price advantage has already tipped the buyer's way, with used electric cars averaging below their petrol equivalents on our gap analysis.

Put those two things together and the practical point is simple. A three-year-old electric car with 90,000 miles on it will be priced a long way under a low-mileage example of the same model, and the evidence now suggests the mechanical risk of buying the higher-mileage car is smaller than the equivalent petrol comparison. What you are still buying blind is the battery, and a car that spent its first life on a fleet lease may have been rapid charged hard and often.

The averages describe a fleet, not the car in front of you. Use them to decide which cars are worth looking at, then do the same work you would do on any used car: a battery health report, a history check, a proper look at the tyres, and a service record. A high-mileage electric car is no longer a reason to walk away. It is a reason to look at the right things.