Electric Car Advisors · PDF ebook
The Used EV Buyer's Inspection Handbook
A repeatable inspection for the buyer standing in the driveway this week, when the engine is a battery.
$27 one-time · 38-page PDF · instant download
The most expensive component of a used electric car is also the most opaque. This handbook gives you a sequence to run in person, with the seller watching and limited time: understand the pack first, then walk the car, drive it, check the paperwork and turn what you found into an offer.
Read this if
- You are about to look at a used EV and your inspection habits come from gas cars.
- You want to know how to get a credible state-of-health reading on the battery, and what to do if you cannot.
- You want to compare two or three cars on the same lines, not on memory.
- You want a clear way to turn findings into a deduction, a condition of sale, or a walk-away.
What's inside
38 pages: an introduction, eight chapters and three appendices.
Chapter 1. What changes when the engine is a battery
Which parts of a gas-car checklist no longer exist, and why mileage means less than you are used to.
Chapter 2. Battery state of health and how to read it
What state of health is, why it decides range, value and resale, and how to get a reading.
Chapter 3. Charging history and how the car was treated
The habits that age a pack and how to find out how this car lived.
Chapter 4. Thermal management, which decided everything
Liquid-cooled against air-cooled packs, and why it is knowable before you see the car.
Chapter 5. The physical walk-around
The normal-looking part of the inspection, with the differences that catch gas-trained buyers out.
Chapter 6. The test drive protocol
A thirty-to-forty-minute drive run in order to collect evidence on systems that are invisible when parked.
Chapter 7. Paperwork, recalls and software
Service records, recalls and the car's digital history, checked from your phone in the driveway.
Chapter 8. Turning what you found into a number
Sorting findings into deal-breakers, price adjustments and conditions of sale.
The appendices
The appendices are working tools you fill in, not more reading.
Appendix A — The walk-around checklist
Print it or keep it on your phone and work top to bottom.
Appendix B — One-car record sheet
One per car, filled in at the car, so vehicles seen a week apart can be ranked.
Appendix C — Questions for the seller or dealer
Questions to ask out loud, with strong and weak answers for each.
FAQ
What exactly do I get?
A 38-page PDF of The Used EV Buyer's Inspection Handbook. After payment, the Stripe confirmation page shows a direct download link to the PDF. Save that link or the file.
How do I pay?
Checkout is handled by Stripe. You pay once; there is no subscription.
Does it tell me what battery warranty or degradation to expect for a given model?
No. On purpose, the book quotes no model-year ranges, battery warranty terms, degradation percentages or prices, because those vary by maker, model and production date. Each chapter names where the real number lives for the car in front of you: the warranty booklet, the window sticker, the owner's manual, a dealer battery report, the maker's own VIN lookup.
Will it teach me to check the high-voltage system myself?
No. It is a buyer's inspection guide, not a repair manual. It tells you never to open an orange cable, a pack enclosure, a service disconnect or an inverter housing, and when to hand the car to a technician with high-voltage training.
Does it replace a professional pre-purchase inspection?
No. It helps you look, listen, ask, read and decide, and know when a professional inspection is needed.
Get The Used EV Buyer's Inspection Handbook
38-page PDF · $27 one-time · download link shown right after payment.
Please read first — from the book
This is a buyer's inspection guide, not a repair manual and not a substitute for a professional pre-purchase inspection. An electric car carries a high-voltage system that can injure or kill. Never open an orange cable, a pack enclosure, a service disconnect or an inverter housing. Anything behind those covers is a job for a technician with high-voltage training. Your role, and this book's role, is to look, listen, ask, read and decide, and to know when to hand the car to someone with a lift.
On purpose, this book quotes no model-year ranges, no battery warranty terms, no degradation percentages and no prices. Those vary by maker, model and production date, and they change. Printing them would hand you a number that is wrong for the car in front of you. Instead, every chapter names where the real number lives for that vehicle: the warranty booklet, the window sticker, the owner's manual, a dealer battery report, the maker's own VIN lookup.