Spirit Motor Group is one of Ireland’s largest automotive retail groups, with no fewer than 13 locations and an impressive selection of new, used cars and commercial vehicles available. With over 20 year’s experience, the company is proud to retail some of the world’s most celebrated brands, including Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Polestar, Ford, ŠKODA, SEAT, CUPRA and Volkswagen service. Spirit sold their first electric vehicle back in 2018 when the award-winning Jaguar I-Pace arrived on Irish shores and since then, the company has enjoyed watching all of its representative brands enter in the EV space with exciting new models. With this change in electric vehicle sales, the natural cycle means plenty of quality used electric vehicles have been traded in for new models. This presents a fresh opportunity for many who want to own an EV, but might not necessarily want the outlay of a brand-new vehicle.

To learn a little more about how these used electric vehicles are presented to the Irish market and indeed what condition they are in, the Nevo team visited Spirit Motor Group, Sandyford to meet with the EV Sales Manager Stephen Byrne. It is here we got to see first-hand the new 10,000 square foot dedicated Electric Vehicle prep and service centre with trained staff fully operational in getting the next batch of new & used electric vehicles ready for the forecourt. This no doubt costly venture highlights Spirits commitment to the end user by providing the very best used electric vehicles at various price points depending on your needs. The investment didn’t stop here either with state of the art solar paneling added to the roof and a self-supply rainwater harvesting system. For those not in a position to visit one of the showrooms, you will find all the current stock available on the Spirit Motor Group website where questions can also be answered through the dedicated “Go Electric” page. Speaking of questions, we were keen to get Stephen’s thoughts on some of important topics currently circulating the used EV space.

Stephen thank you for taking time out to show us around Spirit Motor Group. Can you walk us through the customer journey from entering the door to possibly buying a used EV?

We find that a large proportion of potential new to EV customers arrive with actually quite a lot of information/knowledge about the products, some of this information can be untrue (bar stool talk) but for the most part customers have taken advantage of the Web/YouTube (Nevo) reviews and have some idea of what they want/need. The role for the Spirit staff is to try and understand firstly if an EV will work for the customer, this is done by asking simple questions about the customers current car/daily driving / home & public charging needs etc. Once we, and the customer are happy the test drive takes place, it is at this point that you see customers really getting excited, “It feels like a car” “it’s so smooth & fast” is quite often what we hear. After that the purchase is exactly the same as a traditional ICE vehicle in that the customer can avail of finance if required or buy it outright.

Typically how many used EV’s would be in stock at any one time?

At present we have approximately 80 cars available across our ten sites in Sandyford Business District, Dublin West & North Wicklow. Demand is very high at the moment due to the really good value and choice on offer, we have something for all types of budget, the brands we represent are Jaguar Land Rover, Polestar, Volvo, CUPRA, Skoda, Ford, and having these fantastic brands means that we also attract a lot of customers from others brands who want a change, so as I said lots of choice on our website spiritmotorgroup.ie

Most used electric vehicles will still be inside their initial battery warranty but have your technicians experienced any battery degradation issues?

Certainly not within any of our modern stock, you tend to see that in some cheaper cars such the early electric cars that have been in the market and on the roads for some time now. Battery technology and management systems have become more efficient at managing the battery and Ireland is almost a perfect fit for an EV as we do not get extremes of cold or hot weather.

We can see each vehicle is serviced, valeted and pristine on the forecourt but what length is the used EV warranty?

Typically, they have an 8yr/150k kms battery warranty, and during this period if there was to be any degradation, say for example down to 75% our technicians can simply identify the faulty battery cells and simply replace them under the warranty. This is a fast process and there is no need to replace the whole battery at a cost of thousands as some people might have you believe.

In an effort to educate Nevo readers, what questions do you believe buyers should be asking?

The customer should firstly consider if an EV is right for them by considering their daily/weekly driving distances, most of our EV’s can offer in excess of 400kms on a single charge with some doing 610kms! That’s a lot of A-B driving. Secondly, they should consider how and where they will charge, most of our customers will do approximately 90%+ of their charging from home making it very convenient and extremely economical. There are grants available for the installation. If customers are considering a used EV purchase, they should ask for a state of charge (SOC battery health check report) We believe that for most people an EV will work perfectly.

Finally Stephen, aside from the pleasant driving characteristics and cheaper running costs what other benefits to you see to buying a used electric vehicle?

They are perhaps a much more reliable bet than buying a used ICE as the customer does not have to concern themselves with worrying about how the car was driven, and if the Timing belt / clutch / DPF Filter / Water pump are all ok, as with EV’s they have much fewer moving parts and are inherently more reliable & refined. Another big plus for our customers is the cars technology with lots of our brands offering over the air updates to the vehicle, meaning the customer will always have the latest software on their vehicle without having to take time out of their day to visit a workshop. And finally, but by no means last is the feeling our customers have that they are doing their part from a sustainability point of view. We sometimes feel that this gets overlooked but for a lot of customers it is a real motivating factor and a key cornerstone of Spirit Motor Groups sustainability strategy.

Stephen let us take this opportunity to thank you for your time and wish you continued success in business. During this transitional period to electrification, it is imperative that we have factual information surrounding the sale of used electric vehicles and the presentation, professionalism, and quality of machinery on display at Spirit Motor Group is refreshing to say the least. We urge readers to drop into any of the aforementioned locations or simply browse the website.