It’s been years since I’ve checked the used electric market, but I’m seeing cars like the Hyundai Ionic 6 or Polestar 2 for low 30s, where as they were in the high 40s or mid 50s new a year ago.
My suspicion is that:
- Normal car depreciation when driven off the lot
- General fear of batteries wearing down prematurely, even if the car has ~10k miles
- Any applicable federal rebates or otherwise have already been claimed and can’t be claimed on used vehicles(?)
Is there any other reason why these drop so quickly? Would buying one be considered foolish in anyway?
For Polestar 2 and Tesla model 3 specifically, Hertz has dumped a bunch of slightly used ones on the market and so prices are artificially low at the moment. Hertz did this because people were abusing the cars, resulting in premature tire wear and damage to bumpers etc. Basically they’re too much fun and morons renting them would bump them into things or shred tires with all the instant torque. I expect prices to go back up once the market stabilizes, in the mean time they are a really good deal.
I was going to ask for sauce, but the first result of DDG was enough proof for me.
If Tesla was just a little bit smarter, they would offer rental companies a software update that would reduce that instant torque just a little bit. It would be trivially easy to do so. Might even improve their somewhat shitty reputation, too.
I haven’t looked at the used car market in 5 years, I know that it’s gotten more expensive due to the supply chain, but I’ve bought 3 used EVs over the years, all of them have worked fantastically and all of them were between 38k - 55k new, purchased for 15k-22k off lease. People just hear “EVs are expensive” but don’t take the trouble to actually look for themselves.
Used Nissan Leafs used to be like $7k cars. There are a lot of people who could use a nice, reliable $7k car capable of getting around any city for all practical purposes. But since it can’t go on a Great American Road Trip™, it doesn’t get looked at all.
I’d love to hear more about your experience! What 3 EVs did you buy used and which was your favorite?
I’ve bought Volts and an i3. The Volts were I think 12.5k and 12k and the i3 was 22ish. All 3 have been great but the BMW has a lot more compromises as a long distance vehicle. The Volts have been rock solid and super reliable. We only have one left, but it still reads with its normal rated capacity after 10 years.
I think the trouble is that many people that need the reliable 7k car, also need the road trip capabilities because that’s their main mode of using their time off, because owning two cars and/or flying are out of the price range for folks that need a 7k car.
Until that’s solved by better charge infrastructure or better range (or both) EVs aren’t a good candidate for those folks and they’re a sizeable part of the market.
Fast moving new technology means a larger gap between the used and new market. Combine this with effects of smaller volumes per model and they start high and fall fast.
It will change, but ‘early adopters’ are carrying some of the costs of transition - though only realise losses at time of sale (so keeping the vehicle longer will cost you less than frequent refreshes).
Edit: and no, buying one is not foolish. For many consumers, a midrange EV is already a saving over a reasonable lifetime.
It is a new technology which is evolving faster than ice cars do.
As others have said, the tech is evolving rapidly. Batteries are the biggest cost of a new EV and they are getting cheaper and better every year. There’s reasonable estimates we’ll see EVs with 500mi of range on a charge by 2026 for example.
Another thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet was how absolutely bonkers the car market was coming out of the pandemic with the “chip shortage”. There were months to years long wait lists for any type of new car, so if you wanted a car immediately it had to be used. Those wait lists are becoming resolved and the market is stabilizing.
When we went to buy our Ioniq 5 about a year ago, the comparable used EVs were scares and $35-40k compared to $45k for a brand new Ioniq. And our rusty 11 year old ICE car traded in for $6k, way more than it was worth.
