Most of us, over 80 percent, buy our cars second-hand. Now is a good time to buy a used electric car as Auto Trader reports they have reached price parity with the equivalent used diesel or petrol car.

Many new EV models launched three to four years ago and were bought in large numbers by leasing companies. Finance and leasing terms on these cars have now ended and they are coming onto the used car market at affordable prices.

However, back in February, a House of Lords Committee expressed concern about the constant stream of misinformation on electric vehicles in the media that is misleading drivers and affecting their car choices.

Polls of electric car drivers show that the majority are happy with their EV and would not go back to petrol or diesel. However, in a YouGov survey most petrol and diesel car drivers scored just two out of ten on simple questions about EVs, and those with lower scores were less likely to consider buying an electric car.

For example, most drivers did not know that a petrol car costs more to own and run over its lifetime than an equivalent electric car. Analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) found that the top 10 selling petrol cars of 2023 will cost £700 a year more to run than an electric car.

EVs offer big savings on fuel costs, especially when you charge at home or your workplace. Electricity tariffs designed for EVs offer overnight charging at 8p a kWh – or £5 for a 60kWh charge giving 200-250 miles of driving. Public charging is more expensive, so it makes sense to opt for a car with sufficient range between charging to cover your usual driving.

Electric cars are cheap to service and break down less often, but they can be more expensive to fix should something go wrong, and for this reason insurance can be higher.

There’s a lot of anxiety about battery life, but based on data spanning all the major makes and models, fleet management company Geotab found that the vast majority of batteries will outlast the usable life of the vehicle and will never need to be replaced. As a rule of thumb, batteries degrade by one or two percent per year.

Many EVs are equipped with diagnostic tools that provide information about the battery’s condition and EV manufacturers typically offer eight-year battery warranties. MG are even introducing lifetime warranties.

There are plenty of advantages to driving an electric car: cheap to run, easy to drive, better for air quality and lower CO2 emissions. A second-hand electric car can be an affordable way to make the switch from petrol or diesel. But many UK drivers are missing out because they have been fed negative views about EVs that have no basis in reality.

President of the AA, Edmund King, sums it up, “Once drivers get behind the wheel of an EV they rarely look back when they realise that EVs are better in terms of economy, environment and excitement.”