A media outlet is diving into this for a story. If you've shopped for a car in the last year, we want to hear from you:
Did you end up buying new because a used car didn't make financial sense?
Or did you buy used and feel like you overpaid?
What was the most shocking price you saw on a used car lot?
(Please note we may request your name and location if we decide to cite your story)
You can buy an insanely great BEV for 40% of retail after it's gone off lease after 2-3 years. Everyone is concerned about battery life, but it'll have years to go.
I'm not going to be interviewed for the segment, but I have personally bought a like-new, just-off-lease BEV for a fraction of the retail price of the car and it is really very good.
I just calculated it, it was 37% of the original price. Still feels new.
After the first year, they tend to depreciate at a slower pace than ICE cars for the simple reason that there's not much that can go wrong with them and they are covered under rather long warranties. Most second hand EVs out there produced after 2017 are still under their original drive train warranty (typically eight years or 100K miles, whichever comes first). 2017 was when the Model 3 entered the market. Most popular second hand EV models are much newer than that. Unless they've driven more than 100K miles, they'd typically still have all the expensive bits under warranty.
Whether it makes sense to buy them new depends on what you are buying and where and why. Most private owners would be well advised to look for newish second hand models that are maybe 1-3 years old. The US is in a bit of a market bubble; EVs are very expensive there. And it's not seeing the same price competition. Elsewhere, EU, Asia, Australia, etc. you have a lot of low cost models undercutting their ICE equivalents for ridiculously low prices. Think 15K for low end models. Less in China. And even those will depreciate. But even those cars still see rapid improvements year on year.
Seriously though, there are strata, like with any product. You are asking a question without enough information.
You seem like a bot harvesting information or someone surveying the space in the wrong forum.
That means that the used price can also quite high because of that initial purchase price. For a lot of people it's still a bit of a reach without some kind of finance.
However, with new cars there are all sorts of discounts, grants and 0% interest purchase deals depending on where you live.
With used EVs all the loans I've seen have much higher interest rates and so don't end up costing much less than buying new with a 0% deal.
Why pay a bank for used when you pay the same to the manufacturer's finance company for new?
With the current rate of improvement of EVs I wonder if leasing isn't the best deal currently.
esafak•2mo ago
Anumbia•2mo ago