Charging, battery information and included equipment
Selling an electric or hybrid car: what should you tell us?
An electric or hybrid car needs the same accurate mileage, history, condition and fault information as any other vehicle. A few extra details about charging, battery information and included equipment help our team understand the actual car rather than making assumptions from its registration.
Gladius Motors reviews each enquiry personally. You do not need to buy a battery report, replace a charging cable or arrange a repair solely to ask for an offer. Share the evidence you already have, describe what you have observed and say what remains unknown.
Start with the car’s actual powertrain
Tell us whether the car is fully electric, plug-in hybrid or another type of hybrid if you know. The registration lookup supplies the standard vehicle details, so there is no need to type the make, model, fuel or gearbox into separate form fields. Use “Anything else?” if the displayed specification is wrong or does not describe a conversion or imported version accurately.
You can check the fuel type and other registered details using the DVLA vehicle-information service. If the V5C or online record does not match the car, explain the mismatch instead of choosing the description you think it should have.
Share battery information without turning an estimate into a guarantee
If the dashboard or manufacturer app shows a state of charge, recent estimated range or battery warning, record what it showed and when. A dashboard range estimate is not the same as a measured battery-health result, so do not present it as a guaranteed range or invent a percentage.
- Note the approximate charge level when you take the photos, if it is easy to read.
- Say whether you have noticed a material change in normal charging or usable range, and over roughly what period.
- Mention a manufacturer or garage battery-health report only if you have the report; include its date and mileage.
- Separate the high-voltage drive battery from an ordinary 12-volt battery replacement or starting problem where you know which was involved.
Temperature, driving conditions and vehicle settings can affect what the car displays. A factual observation such as “At 80% charge the dashboard showed 142 miles on 2 November; I have no separate battery-health report” is more useful than “battery is perfect”.
Describe charging and the equipment included
Tell us when the car last charged normally and whether you have seen interrupted charging, a warning message, damage around the charge port or a cable that does not work as expected. If a garage or manufacturer has diagnosed the issue, name the finding and keep the paperwork; otherwise describe the symptom without guessing the repair.
List each charging cable, adapter or portable charger included with the car and say if anything originally supplied is missing. Note obvious damage, a stiff connector or a cable that has not been tested recently. Do not dismantle a plug, cable or vehicle component to investigate it.
Report warning messages and damage safely
Record the exact dashboard wording or symbol where possible, when it appears and whether the car enters a reduced-power mode, will not select drive or will not charge. Keep a current manufacturer instruction, recall notice or garage diagnosis separate from your own observation.
Electric and hybrid vehicles contain high-voltage components. The Health and Safety Executive’s electric and hybrid vehicle guidance says damaged or faulty vehicles need care around high-voltage components and manufacturer instructions should be followed. Do not touch exposed cabling, remove covers, crawl underneath the car or attempt a high-voltage check for an enquiry. If there is visible high-voltage damage, a serious warning or a do-not-drive instruction, leave the vehicle safe and seek qualified advice.
The official MOT guidance for hybrid and electric vehicles also warns that a vehicle can be ready to move without an engine sound and that high-voltage parts should not be touched. Do not create a road test solely to describe a fault.
Use current photos and the right form fields
Complete the seven labelled views: front, rear, left, right, odometer, front seats and rear seats. Use the optional eighth detail photo for the most useful safe close-up, such as a dashboard warning, charge-port damage or the included cable set. Do not replace a required whole-car view with a close-up.
Select Yes for mechanical or electrical faults when there is a known charging, battery, drivetrain or warning-message problem, then explain it in “Tell us about the fault”. Use “Anything else?” for included cables, battery reports, specification mismatches and other useful context. Our damage and faults guide has more examples of observation-first descriptions.
Prepare for an agreed handover
If you accept an offer, tell the team about the current charge level, whether the car can select drive, any access limitation and any manufacturer or recovery instruction before the appointment is arranged. Do not assume a non-running electric or hybrid car can be moved in the same way as a conventional vehicle.
Keep the cables and accessories described as included with the car. At handover, remove personal charging, parking and connected-car accounts and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for deleting saved data. See our personal-data checklist and collection guide.
What happens after your enquiry?
Our team reviews the registration, mileage, condition, history, faults and photos, then sends a personal offer by text and email. It is not an instant automated valuation. You can accept or reject securely online within four days.
Only after acceptance do we call within 24 hours to book free nationwide collection at an agreed time or a forecourt appointment. There are no admin or transaction fees, payment is instant once the sale is agreed, and the offered price is guaranteed provided the car matches the initial enquiry description.