Why did I choose a used electric car after 10 different cars?
From 10 internal combustion engine experiences to my first used EV. Reasons, myths that caused hesitation and an open look at the decision to switch to the VW ID.4.
When I became interested in electric cars myself
When I became interested in electric cars myself, I realized one sad thing. The Internet is full of reviews where journalists sit in the car for three days and already announce the final verdict. There are also influencers who are simply paid for their nice words, or people who drive from Vilnius to the seaside once and imagine that they have already understood the whole system. English-speaking developers have a lot of good information, but their numbers and infrastructure have nothing to do with our Lithuanian reality. Hello, I’m Marius. I’m 39 years old, and I’ve been driving for almost 19 years. I am just like you – I work for a living, live in Lithuania and know how to count my money. I am lucky because there is no shortage of EV enthusiasts in my immediate environment. My cousin Laurynas Boguševičius (yes, the same founder of “Deals on Wheels”, who is now developing the no less impressive “Home Deals” project) has been changing electric cars like socks for many years – from Tesla and Porsche to Audi or BMW. It was his real, long-term experience that opened my eyes, and I saw how many lies and fears are floating around. Hourly charging, constant uncertainty, cosmic depreciation, fear of a cold winter or hot summer... I decided to dispel all this mystique. In this project “EV Openly” I record everything every day: real costs, trips, repairs and pure savings figures. Without any filters and without advertising.
From lessons from an uncle at the market to three new cars from the showroom
My car history is more colorful than many. I got the basics from my dad as a teenager, and later I learned a lot from an uncle who worked at the car market. So what it means to maintain a car, I know perfectly well not from theories. Over the course of two decades, I have had everything in my hands. I have tried the entire range of engines: I went through the classic BMW school (3, 5 and 1 series), experimented with a Lexus RX300, and drove a rational hybrid Toyota Prius. I also know that sweet smell of a new car - I have bought as many as three models from the showroom: VW T-Cross, VW Tiguan and Toyota RAV4. By the way, one fun and frank detail - my driver’s license is valid only for “automatics”, so all my cars were only with automatic transmissions. But no matter what type of fuel was in the tank, I learned one golden rule: change the oil every 10,000 km, love the technology, and it will serve you.
The turning point - the tenth car
The real starting point that brought me to electric was my tenth car - the 2018 VW Arteon. It was a complete “full”: R-Line trim, massaging seats, Head-up display and a 2.0L 140 kW gasoline engine. Driving it was pure pleasure. However, comfort comes at a price. In the city, consumption was around 10-11 liters, on the highway - about 7.5. When an unexpected mechatronics failure added to these fuel costs, I started to do intensive calculations. And I realized that it was time for a change. And so, in October of last year, the eleventh car appeared in my yard - the 2021 VW ID.4 Pro Max with a large 77 kWh battery.
Cards on the table: How much did it cost and what about the battery?
Since the project is called “EV Openly”, we’ll put the cards on the table right away. This used electric car cost me €26,750 (without any state compensation here). With the help of “A1 Motors”, it was delivered directly from the VW dealership in Germany. And now let’s break the biggest Internet myth - “the battery of a used EV will already be dead”. At the time of purchase, the official certificate showed 93.5% battery health (SOH). No guesswork - just pure fact. This is my starting position. The most interesting part awaits in the next posts: • Why did I choose the ID.4 PRO MAX and what led to this decision? • How much does charging at city stations really cost and who wins in the operator wars? • How much does it cost to install a station at home? And, of course, we will open the tables of real costs. I will openly show how much it cost me to ride in the fall, last harsh winter and this summer. Stay together!
About the "EV Openly" project
This blog was born not for profit, but out of a desire to lift the veil of secrecy from the real operation of electric cars - without marketing filters and embellishments. All texts and figures here will always be open and free. If this information was valuable to you, saved you time searching for answers or helped you make a decision, you can symbolically contribute to the project and “buy me a kilowatt-hour” by choosing one of the support amounts below. This is absolutely non-binding, but the best motivation for me to continue sharing open statistics. Thank you for reading!
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