EVs... no one wants them!

[TRKid]

I had a quote to buy my 3yr old egolf from vwfs a month ago for £17900. Quoted again last week at £15200. Today received another formal quote for £13300. 31k on the clock.

Values are dropping hugely. I’m now in a tough position. At £13k it’s quite tempting to buy it, but prices could keep falling

[RayDonovan]

C G said:

confused_buyer said:

I wonder how many first owners who have their car on a lease, PCP or company scheme care about the 80% idea or battery longevity?

If the car will be off after 3 years and 36000 miles anyway I suspect a lot of drivers just do what they want and sod the consequences in 5 years time when it'll be someone else's problem.

Sadly many people treat ICE cars in much the same "not my problem" way now so I'm sure they do EVs.

With mobile phones there is a battery health indicator (on some models). Presumably a similar report is available on an EV so as a buyer, you could theoretically compare battery health of different used examples?

I've heard this theory (keeping charge between 20 and 80%) for mobile phones as well but have never bothered with it personally as it then means the hassle of charging more frequently.

Edited by C G on Tuesday 21st March 15:47

Good thing with phones is that their used value isn't determined by battery health or capacity. I traded in an old Samsung phone a few years ago where the battery wouldn't last half a day, still got top money from Samsung for it.

Guess an old EV with limited usable range would almost be scrap if you couldn't get a new battery installed..

[Macron]

TRKid said:

I had a quote to buy my 3yr old egolf from vwfs a month ago for £17900. Quoted again last week at £15200. Today received another formal quote for £13300. 31k on the clock.

Values are dropping hugely. I’m now in a tough position. At £13k it’s quite tempting to buy it, but prices could keep falling

Is this something you've leased? Is there any room to negotiate? Are there any others anywhere near that price (I'm thinking retail will be a lot more, even if they're not shifting)?

[TRKid]

Yeah it’s a lease car that I already extended by a year from the original 2yr term. I have paid £8000 over three years to lease it, so with the £13,300 offer would make it just over £21k total purchase price.

I’ve checked autotrader and it’s definitely below market price.

[TryingHard]

I'm following this thread closely at the moment as I am in the market for an EV.

I've been using a Tesla M3 Long Range for the last 3 or 4 months but this has to go back in a month or so. I've looked at a number of EV's but keep coming back to a M3 Performance. This is mainly because I do do quite a few long trips and the Super Charger network has worked brilliantly for me.

However, my budget is around £30k - intending to outright purchase as likely to do circa 20k a year.

I'm not a powerfully built company director so £30k to me is a huge amount of money - it will be my most expensive car purchase to date.

Most M3 appear to hover around £35k with less than 35k miles. Idle musings but do I stretch the budget or do I barter very hard. There are quite a few dealers who have 5-10 Tesla's on their forecourt which don't appear to be shifting.

With those experienced in the trade how open do you think these dealers are to low bids. Appreciate this may put them at a loss but any insight into how desperate they are to shift these units (appreciate it may differ dealer to dealer).

ETA: Also anybody have experience of the Tesla extended warranty (provided by Helvitica I believe)?
Bit of a waffle really but not sure whether to buy now and haggle hard, wait a couple of months or just resign myself to the fact that I need to up the budget?

[RayDonovan]

You've got nothing to lose by giving them a call and making an offer.

[Terry Winks]

Honda E’s are dropping all the time too, I started looking about 6 weeks ago, cheapest was about £25k, one has come up now at a Honda dealer for £21k, good for me gonna jump on one soon.

[Merry]

TryingHard said:

I'm following this thread closely at the moment as I am in the market for an EV.

I've been using a Tesla M3 Long Range for the last 3 or 4 months but this has to go back in a month or so. I've looked at a number of EV's but keep coming back to a M3 Performance. This is mainly because I do do quite a few long trips and the Super Charger network has worked brilliantly for me.

However, my budget is around £30k - intending to outright purchase as likely to do circa 20k a year.

I'm not a powerfully built company director so £30k to me is a huge amount of money - it will be my most expensive car purchase to date.

Most M3 appear to hover around £35k with less than 35k miles. Idle musings but do I stretch the budget or do I barter very hard. There are quite a few dealers who have 5-10 Tesla's on their forecourt which don't appear to be shifting.

With those experienced in the trade how open do you think these dealers are to low bids. Appreciate this may put them at a loss but any insight into how desperate they are to shift these units (appreciate it may differ dealer to dealer).

ETA: Also anybody have experience of the Tesla extended warranty (provided by Helvitica I believe)?
Bit of a waffle really but not sure whether to buy now and haggle hard, wait a couple of months or just resign myself to the fact that I need to up the budget?

I've seen quite a few 2020 Model 3 Performances come up with around 35000 miles on the Tesla inventory. All hovering around the £31k mark, including enhanced autopilot and a 12 month 12,000 mile warranty in addition to whatever is left on the existing one.

Hands off though cause I'm after one once I've sold the car I have!

[TryingHard]

RayDonovan said:

You've got nothing to lose by giving them a call and making an offer.

Of course you are right - just wondered if any had done similar recently and interested in the reaction they got.

Merry said:

I've seen quite a few 2020 Model 3 Performances come up with around 35000 miles on the Tesla inventory. All hovering around the £31k mark, including enhanced autopilot and a 12 month 12,000 mile warranty in addition to whatever is left on the existing one.

Hands off though cause I'm after one once I've sold the car I have!

HaHa! I do keep an eye on Tesla inventory but can't see anything that good a value. Cheapest is currently £33,400 with 43k miles.

Also I don't want a white one which limits me a little.

[Merry]

TryingHard said:

HaHa! I do keep an eye on Tesla inventory but can't see anything that good a value. Cheapest is currently £33,400 with 43k miles.

Also I don't want a white one which limits me a little.

Me neither. Those ones I mentioned are either red or blue.

White is definitely not for me either.

[sixor8]

TRKid said:

Yeah it’s a lease car that I already extended by a year from the original 2yr term. I have paid £8000 over three years to lease it, so with the £13,300 offer would make it just over £21k total purchase price.

I’ve checked autotrader and it’s definitely below market price.

Is that cheaper than a 3 year old golf with a petrol engine? If so, it would make it very tempting if I was in your situation. They probably feel they'd have to let it go into the trade for even less! I expect you'd need to budget on keeping it a long time though....

[Mikebentley]

sixor8 said:

TRKid said:

Yeah it’s a lease car that I already extended by a year from the original 2yr term. I have paid £8000 over three years to lease it, so with the £13,300 offer would make it just over £21k total purchase price.

I’ve checked autotrader and it’s definitely below market price.

Is that cheaper than a 3 year old golf with a petrol engine? If so, it would make it very tempting if I was in your situation. They probably feel they'd have to let it go into the trade for even less! I expect you'd need to budget on keeping it a long time though....

Sounds like a bit of a bargain to me.

[SpeckledJim]

Mikebentley said:

sixor8 said:

TRKid said:

Yeah it’s a lease car that I already extended by a year from the original 2yr term. I have paid £8000 over three years to lease it, so with the £13,300 offer would make it just over £21k total purchase price.

I’ve checked autotrader and it’s definitely below market price.

Is that cheaper than a 3 year old golf with a petrol engine? If so, it would make it very tempting if I was in your situation. They probably feel they'd have to let it go into the trade for even less! I expect you'd need to budget on keeping it a long time though....

Sounds like a bit of a bargain to me.

And me. The £8k is spent, you've had the benefit of that already.

The question is whether you can buy an equivalent for anywhere near £13.3k. If not, crack on!

[Yomamaisasnowblower]

Is the performance worth the bump in cost? The LR looks the better deal. I'm looking for a B58 powered BMW (3/4/X3) but the cost savings with free charging at work might sway me!

[TheBinarySheep]

Yomamaisasnowblower said:

Is the performance worth the bump in cost? The LR looks the better deal. I'm looking for a B58 powered BMW (3/4/X3) but the cost savings with free charging at work might sway me!

It depends on your priorities. For me, the performance model physically looks better (wheels, brakes, spoiler). So we went with that.

If those things don't bother you, the LR is a good choice.

[ColdoRS]

TheBinarySheep said:

Yomamaisasnowblower said:

Is the performance worth the bump in cost? The LR looks the better deal. I'm looking for a B58 powered BMW (3/4/X3) but the cost savings with free charging at work might sway me!

It depends on your priorities. For me, the performance model physically looks better (wheels, brakes, spoiler). So we went with that.

If those things don't bother you, the LR is a good choice.

I went for the Performance 3 and subsequently Y because they look much better. The latest pov spec spec Y - white, black interior, Standard Range looks particularly challenging, despite being a great car.

[NDA]

Yomamaisasnowblower said:

Is the performance worth the bump in cost? The LR looks the better deal. I'm looking for a B58 powered BMW (3/4/X3) but the cost savings with free charging at work might sway me!

I was about to say the same.... The LR seems to be the sweet spot - and I assume you can still buy the performance upgrade for them.

[SWoll]

NDA said:

Yomamaisasnowblower said:

Is the performance worth the bump in cost? The LR looks the better deal. I'm looking for a B58 powered BMW (3/4/X3) but the cost savings with free charging at work might sway me!

I was about to say the same.... The LR seems to be the sweet spot - and I assume you can still buy the performance upgrade for them.

When they first launched the Model 3 the LR made little sense to me as was so closely priced to the Performance I never understood why anyone would choose it.

Today with a £7k difference I think you'd be daft to buy the P as the additional bits in no way justify the price jump. For £2.5k on the Model Y you can add 20" wheels and the performance boost and end up with a car that's pretty much just as quick, looks pretty much identical, rides better and goes further on a charge.

ColdoRS said:

I went for the Performance 3 and subsequently Y because they look much better. The latest pov spec spec Y - white, black interior, Standard Range looks particularly challenging, despite being a great car.

Spend £2k on wheels and a stick on spoiler and you'd struggle to tell the difference. The P also comes in white with black interior if you don't pay extra for paint and white interior so a moot point.

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 22 March 09:03

Edited by SWoll on Wednesday 22 March 09:04

[sunnyb13]

For EV's is it better to buy lower mileage or newer?

[squirdan]

been following this thread for a while... flip side of "no one wants them" is there are good deals out there

Just paid £37,500 for a 2yr old Polestar 2 plus pilot with 12k miles... thats the 400bhp 4wd one with all the toys, but no gold bits

finance company are baking in very strong residuals from this point, meaning unbelievably the GFV is £35k in 2 years time / +10k miles

I cant understand that myself but thats their problem. So the monthly is nearly all interest and hardly any depreciation

So... £1500 deposit, and £290 pcm for 2 years gets me virtually cost free motoring. Car is under warranty till its 3yrs old, no servicing of note needed.

Thats £8460 total cost and then hand it back. To use lease type maths, thats 22.5% of the purchase price (not the list)

seems cheap motoring to me. And thats aside from the fact I really like the Polestar anyway

am I missing something?!