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EV prices are falling while the average new car tops $50K (electrek.co)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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[–] 1 point 15 hours ago (6 children)

That's a good thing, is the point of this article and general wisdom. Cars last 10+ years so for the used market, the sooner the car depreciates the better. Unless you plan to sell your car, depreciation rarely matters right? You buy a car to run it into the ground, so the cheaper to start the better.

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  • [–] 1 point 14 hours ago (5 children)

    Yes, it's a good thing for buying a very used car. You'd have to be a fucking idiot to buy one brand new and mildly stupid to buy a lightly used one.

    It's not a good thing if you want to buy an EV that's still worth something with the intention of being able to sell it before it becomes a heavy heap of problems. Heavy depreciation is good when you're buying 10+ years old, not when you're buying 2-3 years old with warranty still intact. For that case you'd want moderate depreciation, where it's already lost some price, but you know it'll still be worth something in 5 years. Plus most people still need to get financing of some sort on a ~20-30k purchase. If it depreciates too quickly and something happens to your finances, you'll be underwater on that loan or lease while trying to get rid of it.

    Meaning any EV under 10-15 years old is currently a really bad deal financially, meaning an early Tesla Model S is basically the smartest EV purchase unfortunately.

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  • [–] 1 point 12 hours ago (2 children)

    That’s some weird logic. If you’re buying used, the more it depreciates before you buy it the better. Let the first owner pay the price for that new car smell. Assuming no issues, why on earth would I want to pay more for the same quality used car?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 hours ago* (1 child)

    Oh no, you're not getting me, I love depreciation. Re-read the first sentence.

    Yes, it’s a good thing for buying a very used car.

    Depreciation doesn't stop after 2 years. If you're the second owner of a lightly used car you intend to sell before the battery and powertrain warranty is over (as most do with EVs, at least here), you still get a fuckton of depreciation happening in the next few years with an EV, less so with ICE. If you're looking at something older, the extra depreciation benefits you a lot.

    Personally I'm waiting for good 7-8 year old EVs to exist that are not Teslas. We're just a few years out from that for many popular models, at which point you can have the car of your dreams for 20k. For cars that were 100k new. If you get one that's 2 years old, it might still be 60-70k. Once that 100k car is around 20k, there's so little left to drop, you give no fucks. Even in my country there are now EV shops that will repair battery packs instead of replacing them so a few years of warranty isn't worth paying tens of thousands more for a car if you can probably get a battery pack repaired for <=5k in the very unlikely event that it fails. I'm not talking about gradual degradation, that's natural and not a big deal IMO with modern battery packs, I'm talking about actual sudden cell failure that leaves the car as a paperweight.

    I've been looking at Jaguar I-Pace as I consider these sufficiently depreciated (can have one for ~15k), but I'm not a huge fan of crossovers and I dislike that most have no tow hitch and even if they do, they're rated to tow only 750 kg.

    And to clarify while normally under "very used" I would mean 15 years or so, which is about what it takes an ICE vehicle to become properly cheap, for EVs this is slightly less, as you can get them super cheap at, like I said, ~7-8 years already.

    I just meant that buying one that's 2-3 years old is still hella stupid because the next few years will continue to be brutal.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago

    Still not following. You’d rather buy a 7 year old car that’s depreciated the same amount as a 2 year old car, regardless of any difference in quality of the two? I’m out the same amount either way and in EVs I’d rather have the more modern tech.

    You seem much more into looks than pure cost of ownership anyway. Which to each their own but I can’t fathom talking about price and then targeting luxury brands. Even used, you’ve got higher maintenance costs than the standard brands. EVs still need tires, windshields, etc and even off brand parts for luxury are a lot more expensive.

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  • [–] 1 point 14 hours ago (1 child)

    That's a ton of assumptions that I think do not hold any real water. The smartest car purchase for most urban or suburban commuters in the US (and likely most other car dependent countries) is a used EV. The best ones have heavily depreciated because of the top 10% churning their cars, they have 80-90% of their battery range (which most people don't even need), and they cost almost nothing to own and operate.

    I would argue no one should be buying a car with the intention of selling it later, because all cars depreciate terribly (COVID was a very unique circumstance).

    The warranty does not care about the value of the car, it's only for parts and repair so what you said doesn't make any sense.

    Your other point is if you buy a depreciating asset with a loan and then lose your income you'll have a hard time paying off that loan. That's literally true for everything in the world. No one should be buying a car they can't afford, and definitely not with a loan they can't safely afford. There's always refinancing which would in your hypothetical would always be a better move as again the ongoing cost of an EV is something like 1/6th or 1/10th of a gas car.

    I think you're giving terrible advice and have been given very bad information.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 hours ago

    The best ones have heavily depreciated

    Yes, like I said, actually used cars. Not something that's 2-3 years old. Those still have a ton left to lose.

    I would argue no one should be buying a car with the intention of selling it later, because all cars depreciate terribly

    They all do, but unless you want to be stuck with the same car until it literally dies, you're selling it. If you're buying a fairly new car, you're likely not planning on keeping it for 20 years, because if you're ok with driving a 20 year old car, you should just buy a 10 year old car and drive that for 10. And if you are planning to sell in about 5 years, which is what most people keep their cars for, used or not, wouldn't you want the one that loses 30-40% of its remaining value in that time, over the one that loses 60-70%?

    The warranty does not care about the value of the car, it’s only for parts and repair so what you said doesn’t make any sense.

    Unfortunately it does for some manufacturers of nice heavily depreciated EVs I'm eyeing ctrl+f "current value". I'm sure others will be following suit. Guy on reddit got told to piss off by dealer because battery replacement was going to cost 60k pounds and car worth 40k or less. Basically put up 20k of your own money to get a warranty job done, ridiculous. This with the manufacturer deciding the price of the battery in the first place because LG or whoever sure as shit doesn't charge them anywhere close to that amount.

    No one should be buying a car they can’t afford, and definitely not with a loan they can’t safely afford.

    And yet most people do. So when you've got 15k left to pay on your car and get laid off with only 6 months of income saved up (which is about 100x more in savings than the average person in some countries like the US) and have no idea if you'll get a new job in 3 months or 2 years, would you rather the market value of your car be 20k or 12k?

    There's always refinancing

    Yes, pay even more money by extending your loan. On something that's already underwater. This is why Americans for example are so fucked with vehicle debt. Many of them roll negative equity into their next loan, and the one after that and... you get the point. Soon the loan principals get much bigger than the cars are worth. Made worse by ever longer loans terms that are designed to sucker you into exactly that.

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