Using the translational energy-gain spectroscopy technique, we have measured the energy-gain spectra and absolute total cross sections for single-electron capture in collisions of Ne2+ with N2, CO2 and H2O at laboratory impact energies between 50 and 400 eV and 0° scattering angles. In all the collision systems studied here, reaction channels have been observed which indicate the presence of the long-lived metastable states of (2s2 2p4 1D and 1S) in the Ne2+ incident beam. These measurements also indicate that capture from the metastable states into excited states of the projectile product ions is the most important inelastic process. Contributions from capture accompanied by the excitation and ionization of the target product are also detected. In addition, the energy dependence of the total single-electron capture cross sections is studied and found to slowly increase with increasing impact energy. The present data are compared with the theoretical calculations of the classical over the barrier, extended classical over the barrier and Landau–Zener models.