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:

  1. Normal car depreciation when driven off the lot
  2. General fear of batteries wearing down prematurely, even if the car has ~10k miles
  3. 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?

  • wewbullEnglish
    51·
    6 months ago

    I don’t particularly think they are going low. However:

    • Tesla has been artificially holding resale prices high for a long time. They could only do this when there was very little competition in the second hand market.
    • The initial price for EVe is too high. All the manufacturers are trying to recoup R&D costs on one or two models. The cars aren’t worth the initial price and the second hand market corrects for this.
    • We’ve been through a period of scarcity due to the supply chain getting screwed during CoVid, so demand couldn’t keep up with supply. Supply is far bigger now. Shortages are largely over and there are far more brands in the market.

    What I’m saying is that it isn’t the second hand price being low. It’s that it used to be high for various reasons and the market is correcting. Cue people getting caught out because they didn’t see it coming, and getting vocal about it.