Electric Car Values in Free Fall as Second-Hand Prices Halve in Two Years

[Doodle]

Never heard of pre-registered UK cars being SORNed then exported and sold-off en-masse as second-hand in other countries, but you never know....

Nothing to do with pre-registered, the discussion was about what happens to them after 3-4 years
I wouldn't have followed its history after my ownership, were it not for the Mannheim driver getting a speeding ticket on the M6.

 

[almichie]

Or IME, sitting in a field for a year before being exported god knows where. So some other country's second hand market, in theory.

Interestingly that’s what happened to one of my Volvos… I had a tracker fitted that I forgot to take out and I watched it sail to Turkey…

 

[markjay]

....After reading through some New Leaf Service Contracts reviews here, I decided to reach out to them, and I’m so glad I did. They’ve been fantastic with any issues we've had, always happy to help and offer quick solutions. Their customer service is top-notch, and it’s reassuring to know they’re just a call away if we need assistance

It's a joke, right...?

 

[m80]

While the steep depreciation might be a concern for current owners, it also presents an opportunity for budget-conscious buyers to enter the EV market at a lower price point.

Your point 3 has perhaps the greatest relevance.
A new battery pack will cause many EV's to become beyond economic repair.

Unless the anticipated, by me at least, battery repair industry gets momentum, and makes such repairs a reasonable cost.
But then becomes the consideration of reliability / longevity of those repairs, or the likely failure of the remaining cells.

 

[Pontoneer]

Interesting.

Unfortunately registrations aren’t equal to sales, they’re a strong indicator but manufacturers preregistering vehicles in large volumes can skew figures a little.

It will be interesting to see if it’s sustained or a one-off. Being August there may be some extra preregistrations ahead of the 74 reg being released in September.

The main reason now for manufacturers preregistering EVs is to avoid the punitive taxes levied by the government if they fail to shift a certain percentage of their output as EVs .

Regardless that the public don’t want them , preregistrations count towards their total and allow the manufacturers to avoid paying penalties.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Avoiding fines is a very helpful byproduct but for decades pre-registering vehicles has been the car manufacturing industry’s way of dealing with over supply. It’s not an EV thing it’s a car thing.

 

[MSG2004]

I was watching an old tv car show last night and watched several episodes within the hours via fast-forwarding etc. I can't recall the name of the show but it is where a ordinary man off the street is shown 4 cars and he has a budget for a new/repalcement car and the 2 hosts help him with a choice of 4 cars to drive/chose etc

I was staggered to learn that a 2019 Tesla Model S came with "free caring for life and a life time battery warranty."

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I was watching an old tv car show last night and watched several episodes within the hours via fast-forwarding etc. I can't recall the name of the show but it is where a ordinary man off the street is shown 4 cars and he has a budget for a new/repalcement car and the 2 hosts help him with a choice of 4 cars to drive/chose etc

I was staggered to learn that a 2019 Tesla Model S came with "free caring for life and a life time battery warranty."

That sounds like a Mike Brewer programme prior to Wheeler Dealers. I forget the name hoo.

 

[BTB 500]

I was watching an old tv car show last night and watched several episodes within the hours via fast-forwarding etc. I can't recall the name of the show but it is where a ordinary man off the street is shown 4 cars and he has a budget for a new/repalcement car and the 2 hosts help him with a choice of 4 cars to drive/chose etc

Could have been 'Motor Pickers'? Presenters were Paul Cowland (Salvage Hunters Classic Cars) and Helen Stanley (Goblin Works Garage):

 

[ChrisPDuck]

...free caring for life...

That could turn out to be worth a lot more than a bit of free electricity

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

The main reason now for manufacturers preregistering EVs is to avoid the punitive taxes levied by the government if they fail to shift a certain percentage of their output as EVs .

Regardless that the public don’t want them , preregistrations count towards their total and allow the manufacturers to avoid paying penalties.

It’s ICE that gets pre-registered in their tens of thousands, and has done since the 1980’s when I managed fleets. The manufacturers give end of year or quarter discounts to the dealers to move stock down the line. The dealers then register the cars to give an excuse to sell them discounted without undermining the official list.

Walk around any Ford, Renault or Vauxhall complex and you’ll see them parked up with tiny mileages, although most will be parked off-site in large compounds.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Depended on the franchise.....I was selling VW and Audi from 87 to 2003 ish....we NEVER got extra margin to register extra cars and we didn't register unsold cars to get target unless it was a single car to get a quarters end....but we rarely had to as switched on customers used to come in at the end of the quarters to get a sharp deal......selling a car at cost or even a small loss was given the go ahead if it meant getting 1% extra on every car sold that quarter....but if we were miles off target registering lots of cars was frowned on by VAG. But the boys down the road at Ford and Vauxhall seemed to register more unsold cars each month that they actually retailed....with loads of zero miles current plate cars lined up on the lot with big discounts. Back then we did nothing like the numbers that the fleet supply boys (Ford, Vauxhall etc) did so chasing market share and paying to do it was futile.....different times now. Mind you our cars used to hold value much better than Fords etc ....just because they were not heavily discounted. Customers forget that heavily discounted cars are inevitably the same cars that suffer from poor residual further down the road......Times have changed now though.....number and market share are everything. Glad I'm out of it.

 

[Will]

^^^I don’t think I know anyone who used to buy cars like new Vauxhalls back in the 90s. I think the majority were run as company cars or rentals, heavily discounted with poor residuals as you say.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Yep.....Another person I knew used to help run the fleet for Barclays....they used to get 40% off Fords back then and run them for 24 months and then they would appear on the used market and do nothing but depreciate all the privately bought ones......why would a dealer offer more for a private one when he could get 24 month old ex fleet cars at around half list new price???. That's one of the reasons why Sierras and Mondeos were worth nothing second hand.

 

[BTB 500]

^^^I don’t think I know anyone who used to buy cars like new Vauxhalls back in the 90s.

You've met at least one - I bought a new Vauxhall in 1998

 

[Will]

You've met at least one - I bought a new Vauxhall in 1998

…There’s always one!

 

[Will]

Yep.....Another person I knew used to help run the fleet for Barclays....they used to get 40% off Fords back then and run them for 24 months and then they would appear on the used market and do nothing but depreciate all the privately bought ones......why would a dealer offer more for a private one when he could get 24 month old ex fleet cars at around half list new price???. That's one of the reasons why Sierras and Mondeos were worth nothing second hand.

Back when I was young and poor I used to own a few Fords.

I remember buying one of the new shape (ugly!) Ford Scorpios, 5 years old (1996/N in 2001) for £2000.

It had done 120k but looked almost like new. I’m sure it was listed at something like £20k new - 90% depreciation in 5 years

One of my first cars was a Sierra Sapphire 2000E - would have been less than ten years old and was around £1k from memory - really high spec car at the time - but the build quality wasn’t great on old Fords.

 

[markjay]

^^^I don’t think I know anyone who used to buy cars like new Vauxhalls back in the 90s. I think the majority were run as company cars or rentals, heavily discounted with poor residuals as you say.

True, I bought in 2001 a nearly-new Omega for little money. But the term 'poor residuals' can be misleading. It's only poor if compared to the RRPs, which few cars were actually sold for, but it's in fact quite reasonable when compared to the price that the finance provider actually paid the dealer for the car when new.

 

[Will]

True, I bought in 2001 a nearly-new Omega for little money. But the term 'poor residuals' can be misleading. It's only poor if compared to the RRPs, which few cars were actually sold for, but it's in fact quite reasonable when compared to the price that the finance provider actually paid the dealer for the car when new.

Naturally - but the problems come when some people paid the list price or close to it, or when you compare the used prices from the trade bibles (CAP/Glasses Guide etc) back in the day - the list price is what it is.

It’s like the ECP or DFS marketing strategy all over again!

In summary - many of these cars were not great sellers to the general public and I expect poor (perceived at least) residuals wouldn’t have helped matters either.

 

[BIGDOG]

There’s a deal on the ID Buzz currently (LOL).

They were around £700pm lease (1X48) 2 months ago and now are in stock at £370pm, same profile, as the newer model is now available.

I’m tempted.

I don’t want to own an EV because of the depreciation uncertainty, I tend to loose about £5k PA on my main car anyway and it replaces 2 cars with tax/MOT/Ins/Petrol costs plus I keep my cash in the bank.

I suspect that I will procrastinate long enough to miss the deal or be left with just the crap colours/spec and this car is very colour dependent.