RE: Tesla to post first-ever profits
Discussion
dvs_dave said:
They have sold well and I see them around Chicago regularly, but I feel that the current typical buyer who essentially has the cash to burn on one, will probably get tired of the compromises they involve and start dropping them like hot potatos. The used market for them will be interesting, and I fear probably not great for the current owners. As an indicator, I was just offered a 6 month old Fisker with 6k on the clock that has lost not far off 40% of its list price. Ouch!
Well currently there are two Tesla Roadsters on Pistonheads classified for sale, they are at £64,000 and £84,000 and are both 2010 models the higher value car has delivery miles only. Given these cars cost £87,000 new that is not terrible depreciation.For a good while yet I suspect supply will be considerably less than demand in which case the used values of these cars should be pretty good. As someone said earlier the compromises are like those of owning a 2 seater car, the owner knows these when they buy the car and simply plans around them, I don't see the owners suddenly offloading them and going back to petrol cars (other than several cars they own already because they are rich).
The bigger issue I see is that of obsolescence perceived or otherwise. Electric vehicles are in a state of fairly rapid evolution, battery technology is becoming better at a fairly rapid rate. The Tesla Model S could start looking like the I-Phone 1, not least because it was designed to look like a conventional car once it gains acceptance for electric vehicles manufactures will start using the new configurations that electric allows.
The Tesla Roadster will probably become a classic and have some value as a weekend fun car I expect there will probably be a market for re-batterying them as time goes by. As a 17ft long 7 seater luxury car then Model S will probably just depreciate like its rivals once supply and demand balance out.
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