Electric cars depreciation shocker

[Eddie25]

interesting read. good news for us! Electric cars' depreciation shocker | Wheels24

[SDMCF]

The Renault Fluence, Citroen C-Zero and Nissan Leaf E have all lost more than three-quarters of their value in the UK after covering about 20 000km during the past year.

That is a big drop. If an electric car were at all suitable for my use I would be very tempted by a cheap used one.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Meh, nobody note how many ICE's are in that worst ten list?

I bought a used VW 12 months ago for 22K, was offered 8K for it...and it's a TDi. That's 36% retained value after 12 months on a USED (and apparently sought after) ICE.

[markweatherill]

We must thank the early adopters for buying these EVs new.

[Christopher Jordan]

I feel better now! I bought my German City-El 3-wheeler EV off Craigslist about $2000. then ran the DieHard batteries near their death. Sold it for $5000.

I bought a small Handy Trike- been trying to sell that with no luck at all. I was thinking how stupid I was to sell the City-El; but news like this makes me feel like I did the right thing.

[California98Civic]

On CL a clean title 2011 or 2012 Nissan Leaf in Southern Cali can go for less than a third of its MSRP, roughly (I have an email alert on the cars sent to me daily). But that is over three or four years. Still seems like losing 2/3 or 3/4 of value in three or four years is higher depreciation than normal.

[EVmetro]

Almost any car, gas or electric goes down to 10% of its original value in ten years. Just move the decimal over one place from the original sticker price, and that is what it will likely be worth in ten years. This is a big problem for manufactured EVs, since the cost to replace the battery pack that will be ready to changed after a decade will exceed the value of the car, rendering it totaled. The EV components are worth very little, since most of them are proprietary instead of being universal, so they only fit certain year, make, and models.

This is the argument for owning an EV conversion. An EV conversion is typically done to a car that has already depreciated, but the components tend to be assets with value not related to the car, since they can interchange easily with other conversions. Kinda like buying an expensive aftermarket stereo. If you wreck an inexpensive car with a nice aftermarket stereo, you can remove the amps, speakers, and deck, and install them into your next vehicle or liquidate them. In the case of a converted EV, the value of the motor, controller, charger, bms, cables, instrumentation, and such will probably far exceed the value of the chassis, so they are assets that have a separate value from the chassis. At the end of a decade, those assets won't be worth as much as new ones, but they will be worth far more than a factory EV that has been rendered a total.

I like to think of an EV conversion chassis as a platform for assets, kinda like a desk is a platform for a computer and printer. The value of the desk can be trivial compared to the equipment that you put onto it. I look at factory EVs like I would look at a desk with a computer and printer permanently attached to it. It works great when it is new, but it will be worthless in a decade.

[California98Civic]

That's a great response EVMetro. Thanks. I have daydreamed about an EV conversion, or parallel hybrid of my 98 Civic. It is part of why I built the electric bike (a baby step in hands-on, design, and theory learning about the electric components).

[EVmetro]

I spend every bit of what it costs to buy a nice new Nissan Leaf when I convert an old worn out Metro, and people often ask me why I would spend all this money to convert an old pile of junk when I could just go and buy a brand new EV. There are many reasons why I do. The value of my component assets after a decade is high on my list, but there are many more reasons why conversions make more sense than buying new. When you convert, you can design the car the way you like it, instead of accepting what they want to sell you. I enjoy faster charging, more places to charge, faster top speed, better efficiency, and a car that is easy to work on or update. The annual renewal on my tags for a 20 year old car is dirt cheap. Here in CA, my registration for the 20+ year old Metro costs $400 less than one for a new Leaf, and I can buy 2666 kW of electricity with that. 2666 kW of electricity per year of electricity gets me 14,000 miles per year. This means that by going with a conversion instead of buying new, just the difference between registering a new EV or my conversion pays for my fuel bill.

[Piotrsko]

Not to mention the goofy grin one displays while driving something you yourself had a part making.