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

[SpikyMikey]

…There’s always one!

More than one! - I bought a Nova and a MK3 Cav

 

[zipdip]

If I was employed to write articles about cars,I would have thought there was mileage in finding the VW Golf ev driver who puts on 118,000 miles in 4 years how did he do it,what trips did he make how did he charge his car,had he kept accurate records of what it cost,the car is up for sale at £7800 with the new price at £31,000,so this high milage Golf is worth a quarter of the new price with 118,000 miles on the clock,contrast that with any diesel car.

 

[BIGDOG]

If I was employed to write articles about cars,I would have thought there was mileage in finding the VW Golf ev driver who puts on 118,000 miles in 4 years how did he do it,what trips did he make how did he charge his car,had he kept accurate records of what it cost,the car is up for sale at £7800 with the new price at £31,000,so this high milage Golf is worth a quarter of the new price with 118,000 miles on the clock,contrast that with any diesel car.

You could write articles about cars now without being employed to do so, why not do it? A good few people here will read it if you make it interesting, do it, it might be enlightening.

 

[Will]

If I was employed to write articles about cars,I would have thought there was mileage in finding the VW Golf ev driver who puts on 118,000 miles in 4 years how did he do it,what trips did he make how did he charge his car,had he kept accurate records of what it cost,the car is up for sale at £7800 with the new price at £31,000,so this high milage Golf is worth a quarter of the new price with 118,000 miles on the clock,contrast that with any diesel car.

I wonder how much a diesel Golf would have cost to run for the same journeys - fuel, servicing and repair costs - not to mention VED.

Would be worth factoring that in when making a comparison of residual values at this point.

And there’s a good chance that Golf was run tax-efficiently also - and probably less polluting if it was used in and around town.

Just trying tot balance the view a little as sometimes you don’t consider the full picture

Where did you see the car - was it an article or is in on Autotrader etc?

 

[BIGDOG]

I wonder how much a diesel Golf would have cost to run for the same journeys - fuel, servicing and repair costs - not to mention VED.

Would be worth factoring that in when making a comparison of residual values at this point.

And there’s a good chance that Golf was run tax-efficiently also - and probably less polluting if it was used in and around town.

Just trying tot balance the view a little as sometimes you don’t consider the full picture

Where did you see the car - was it an article or is in on Autotrader etc?

Also, did the owner actually pay £31k?

 

[Will]

Also, did the owner actually pay £31k?

Yes that’s what I was trying to get at regards ‘tax efficiency’ - a lot of these cars would have been very efficient to run (including some grants IIRC) through businesses/companies which for a 118k mile/4 year old car is quite likely the case

(And that’s without considering any possible manufacturers discounts!)

 

[Will]

Also when you think, if it’s 4 years old - that’s impressive mileage for an e-Golf that would have spent the first part of its life through the pandemic!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

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.

Ooooh, I’m interested.

 

[BIGDOG]

Ooooh, I’m interested.

Bugger off!

I do fancy a orange/white van to mess about around the area in though.

Might even dig out my surfboard from the back bedroom to strap to the roof.

 

[Pontoneer]

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.

Of course it has been a practice for many decades , but now in particular with the government imposing a fine of £15,000 EACH VEHICLE sold when they fail to register at least 22% of their output as EVs , this is a way of avoiding highly punitive fines . This is a HUGE cost for manufacturers to bear if they do not hit these targets , and this is in addition to whatever other economic factors which previously drove pre-registrations .

From the article below " According to the mandate, EVs must make up 22% of a firm's car sales and 10% of their van sales this year. For every car sale that pushes it outside of that mandate, they must pay a £15,000 fine. "

Electric vehicle targets 'will not be weakened' despite pressure

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh says the rules will remain, but car firms warn they are too strict.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Pontoneer]

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.

Indeed , and Tesla have been at it also for years : they call them 'Inventory Models' .

My pal bought his a good number of years ago now , when they only had the one model , got £30K off the list price , a good trade in for his Jaaaag , and then got the seven year interest free loan from Scottish Government to spread out the balance ; oh and a free home charger paid for as well . Of course he never charges at home because that would use his electricity - not when he can charge for nothing at the chargepoints in the public park at the bottom of his street , or others around the country , at work , or in various supermarkets .

As he described it - it was a 'no brainer' .

 

[Pontoneer]

Yes that’s what I was trying to get at regards ‘tax efficiency’ - a lot of these cars would have been very efficient to run (including some grants IIRC) through businesses/companies which for a 118k mile/4 year old car is quite likely the case

(And that’s without considering any possible manufacturers discounts!

A smidge under 30,000 miles per annum is typical repmobile mileage ( I used to do a lot more than that , and even now with minimal use still cover around 15,000 per annum with very little now being business mileage ) so I don't see it as anything remarkable .

 

[ALFAitalia]

Some of the reps that visit my work are doing 50k plus..... probably 75 percent now are in EVs.... and would you believe that they never suffer from range anxiety, find broken or offline chargers (because the car or app tells them and routes then to ones that are not and of course mostly they charge at home)..... must be some sort or miracle....not. Dont forget that 50k on a 5 day a week job is less than 200 miles a day...well within the range of most rep EVs.

 

[BIGDOG]

Indeed , and Tesla have been at it also for years : they call them 'Inventory Models' .

My pal bought his a good number of years ago now , when they only had the one model , got £30K off the list price , a good trade in for his Jaaaag , and then got the seven year interest free loan from Scottish Government to spread out the balance ; oh and a free home charger paid for as well . Of course he never charges at home because that would use his electricity - not when he can charge for nothing at the chargepoints in the public park at the bottom of his street , or others around the country , at work , or in various supermarkets .

As he described it - it was a 'no brainer' .

Is he first to get a round in down the pub?

 

[markjay]

More than one! - I bought a Nova and a MK3 Cav

The Nova was indeed a car that people bought privately, like the Fiesta.

But a Mk3 Cavalier... now, that's a proper repmobile

 

[Riva811]

My mate got one via salary sacrifice. He charges at home every night so I can see how people do a lot of miles without anxiety. To be honest an EV is like driving a V8 consumption wise without the high price of fuel.
But yeah depriciation is terrible with EVs. They are like £80,000-£150,000 as new and cost like £20,000 after 4 years!

 

[Will]

My mate got one via salary sacrifice. He charges at home every night so I can see how people do a lot of miles without anxiety. To be honest an EV is like driving a V8 consumption wise without the high price of fuel.
But yeah depriciation is terrible with EVs. They are like £80,000-£150,000 as new and cost like £20,000 after 4 years!

£80-150k down to £20k in four years?

Where please - I’ll take one!

 

[Pontoneer]

Is he first to get a round in down the pub?

Not always first , but he generally takes his turn

 

[Pontoneer]

The Nova was indeed a car that people bought privately, like the Fiesta.

But a Mk3 Cavalier... now, that's a proper repmobile

Yes , my close to 90 year old neighbour had one . They were often favoured by the aged .

 

[Will]

If I was employed to write articles about cars,I would have thought there was mileage in finding the VW Golf ev driver who puts on 118,000 miles in 4 years how did he do it,what trips did he make how did he charge his car,had he kept accurate records of what it cost,the car is up for sale at £7800 with the new price at £31,000,so this high milage Golf is worth a quarter of the new price with 118,000 miles on the clock,contrast that with any diesel car.

Just had a quick look on Autotrader - there’s three e-Golfs with over 100k miles (2019-2020 registered) priced beween £7849 (that must be the one you saw?) up to £9777.

Compare that to all Golfs, petrol and diesel, from 2019 with 100k miles - 36. Which isn’t a surprise really as they sold a lot more ICE models five years back of course (and they were cheaper to buy)

But the petrol/diesel Golfs are actually worth less - cheapest one with 133k miles, a 2019 petrol model - £3490. Even if there’s something not right with that car/ad, there’s plenty of petrol and diesel ones with similar mileages for less than £8k.

I don’t really understand what all the fuss is about - obviously the e-Golf would have been more expensive upfront but that would be offset with the reduced running costs of 100k+ miles of use. And this as an example was an early EV with limited range, nothing like the EVs of today by comparison.

Less pollution and potentially cheaper to run - what’s the issue?