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Comment by yellow_postit | Hacker News Reader

What’s the resell market like for EV? I wouldn’t ever buy new and with the change in maintenance I’m wondering how viable just going to a mechanic to checkout a craigslist car purchase will be as EVs make up a greater share of vehicles on the road.

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> What’s the resell market like for EV?

Leaf's are pretty cheap relative to new, I think some buyers remorse is leading to a flooded market but I'm not sure.

Tesla's aren't that much less than new (although I was looking at "certified" ones through Tesla.) I decided there wasn't much reason to buy used.

Maybe in 3-5 years it will be different.

I suspect part of that is just how much better the current model Leaf is than the old ones. In a rapidly changing market, you can’t expect much resale value. Of course, this implies the next problem; it’s never the right time to buy an electric car, because next year’s range is going to be a lot better..l

Right. The logical thing to do is to price it up as a lease without option to purchase / long-term hire contract and compare that to other competitors.

Tesla's aren't that much less than new (although I was looking at "certified" ones through Tesla.) I decided there wasn't much reason to buy used.

The reason to buy used is that there is no waiting list so you can get it now.

Which implies as a corollary that if Tesla was able to fill current demand for new cars, then the price of used Teslas would drop substantially.

Resale is extremely weak, even for something like a Model S. Think 50% or less going to auction after three years, and some cars in particular (looking at you 500E) going for 1/6 what they were sold for brand new.

Once the technology stabilizes a bit and becomes more common, resale probably won't be any worse than everything else.

That's true only if you compare sticker prices. In reality, a $32k bolt has a $7.5k federal rebate, a $2.5k california rebate, and various city and utility rebates. So a $32k MSRP is actually around $20-22k.

With that in mind, a $16k 3 year old Bolt is actually not that bad.

Meanwhile in Canada, there are no EV rebates (in most provinces), and due to the depreciation of the dollar and Tesla's USD-based pricing, buying a new Model 3 is now only $400 less than the Model S was at launch four years ago.

If long-term reliability really is good for EVs, it should be cheap for manufacturers to offer long-term warranties, transferable between owners, as a point of differentiation over their competitors. As-is, EVs don't (yet?) have better warranties than ICE cars.

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