That's what I do too. I just thought I'd pull out depreciation before a genius does.

Then assume straight line depreciation between the car brand new and the car when it is scrap. If a $60,000 car lasts 20 years and you own it the whole time, you can consider the depreciation to be $3000/year if you'd like.

Either way, at the end of the car's useful life you need to be prepared to pony up more money to buy the next one.

I drove a 20+ year old car up until I had a kid, and suddenly I started to care about those safety features from the previous 20 years (like airbags and crumple zone improvements).

Unfortunately, you can't ignore depreciation. It's rarely possible to actually drive a car into the dirt, as they can last for hundreds of thousands of miles if properly maintained.

Even if you intend to drive the car into the ground, you usually can't. Every time you get on the road it's a roll of the dice. Over enough time, eventually you roll snake eyes. You can be the best driver in the world, you can't beat physics. If someone pulls out of a parking lot right in front of you, you're going to crash. You can't skill your way out of minimum stopping distance.

And this happens, depreciation matters regardless of your choices. The insurance company is going to offer you a settlement based on the depreciated value of the vehicle. Sure, in theory you could say, "well, they gave me the value of a 10 year old car, so I'm just going to buy another copy of the same car I just totaled!" But that rarely works in practice. Once they get that old, you really have to worry if the old owner took care of it properly or not. Driving a car into the dirt works well when you can be the original owner and know that the maintenance has been kept up with.

Can cost you more to maintain it though.

It matters if you are in a collision for the payout.

In the context of OP, depreciation means that a “$50K when new” car may only be worth ~$35K if you choose to buy it 1-2 years later.

So it’s not so much about it’s residual value at any point in time, but rather how EVs tend to have a steeper depreciation curve at the beginning - making lightly used models a more attractive bargain.