Sunday 3rd December 2017

PH Service History: Down the plug hole

Would you buy a used electrified car? With more and more desirable options appearing the answer might not be as obvious as you think

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I notice BMW has finally got around to launching its i8 Roadster over in LA this week. I have to admit, I've a bit of a soft spot for the i8. Yes, I know - it's not a proper supercar, despite being junior supercar cash. And yes, I'm also aware its dead steering and less-than-stellar performance mean even as a sports car it struggles to match the best.

But look at the thing. Rarely, if ever, have I been able to allow an i8 to pass by without pausing to admire the low snout, the gloriously eccentric flying buttresses or the judicious use of colour. To drive, it's as other-worldly as it looks, too; the three-pot hum augmented by the subtle whirr of the electric motors, whose shove ensures strong and seamless acceleration while you marvel at the lavish, wrap-around dashboard.

So as glamorous as the new i8 Roadster might be, I'm more excited by the prospect of one of the early cars, which have now dropped in price to less than £60,000. Take this example, the cheapest in the classifieds at the time of writing; as an approved used car, it has a guaranteed full service history, and while the mileage is a smidge above average, it's still done less than 30k - barely run in, in other words. Yours for £58,000 - which means, compared with cars that started out at roughly the same sort of price, it's depreciating less quickly than the BMW M6 (but more so than the Audi R8).

Depreciation's a funny thing with electric cars. While at the bottom end of the market the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe have dropped like stones, the more desirable Teslas have done the very opposite - in stark contrast to predictions from the industry's valuation experts, I might add. Blame lack of supply combined with high desirability: compare the £45,990 price tag of this early Model S 85, endowed as it is with a low 20,000 miles and a full history, with a BMW 730d (£22,117), Audi A8 3.0 TDI (£23,990), or even a Mercedes S-Class Hybrid (£39,994) of a similar age and mileage.

Of course, stories abound of issues with Tesla build quality, and perhaps these will take their toll on values; either way, I'd have to question whether the Tesla's really worth the extra cash as a used buy. OK, so you do get the rapid standing-start performance everyone talks about - but only if you're doing stratospheric mileage are you ever going to recoup the additional £20,000 or so in savings on fuel.

The other point to come from all of this is that the dinosaur-powered barges are looking more and more like stunning bargains. Why pay £22k for a year-old 3 Series when you can have a 7 Series that's barely run in for the same money? (That is, mind you, a column for another day, and a topic I'll be sure to revisit before too long.)

But what if you want to spend that £22,000 on a bit of electrified performance motoring? Well in that case, I reckon a used Golf GTE is looking like a sound bet. At a shade under £20k, a two-year-old example like this will cost you more than the equivalent GTD, or even the GTI, but the flipside is that GTE prices show that the market does value plug-ins like these; prices aren't crashing and burning once they hit a year or two old. Chances are that trend will remain the same and you'll see back more of that initial investment when you come to sell on. Let's not forget, too, that you can plug your GTE in at home and enjoy bimbling around town for very little money at all on the electric range (31 miles officially, but reckon on closer to 20 in the real world).

There we have it, then: you don't have to buy new to jump on the plug-in bandwagon, meaning electrified cars will soon be within reach of us all. Now all I have to do is put aside a chunk of my heady motoring journalist's salary, and I'll be able to buy one of those i8s in... hmm. About 187 years, I reckon.

[HardMiles]

Agreed that the i8 is about the only one I'd have. Although for that money I'd be looking at a classic racecar instead, more fun and likely to make you money. Or a road going Ferrari / Alfa Montreal.