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Comment by nikcub | Hacker News Reader

Resale value is starting to ward some people off.

You can buy 1-2 year old used Teslas and BYD's in Australia for ~30% below retail.

Meanwhile Toyota hybrids not just retain their value but there have been moments where used RAV4's are listed above retail because the waitlist for new was so long.

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The poor resale market for EVs just means that people who actually have some understanding of the battery lifespans can get very good deals on 1-2 year old cars

Tesla is a special case because they manipulate their pricing on a monthly, sometimes daily basis, and in the past they've changed the price quite significantly. In the US, the tax credits also really screw with the market dynamics. Lots of people think the car depreciates really quickly because they don't realize the original buyer didn't pay MSRP. I paid $20K under MSRP for my Lightning and in the just over a year I've owned it, the value has dropped about 7-8K. Pretty normal for the first year of a new vehicle.

Most other car prices are "manipulated" on a minute-by-minute basis, insofar as pricing is different for each customer, based on their their willingness to go hard in negotiation, manufacturer incentives, demand levels, stock levels, finance packages, and the current mood of the dealership principal.

The difference with Tesla is that their current "best price" is published out in the open.

That can be true, but at least in the case of Ford's EVs, many (maybe even most, for a while) of us did not really negotiate with the dealer, the price came from Ford. The dealer wasn't even allowed to negotiate, in fact.

This makes me laugh. We're early on the curve, but yeah you can get amazing deals.

Bought a $67K Polestar 2 with 20K miles on it for $29K.

So yeah, depreciation keeps me from buying $67K new cars (regardless of their powertrain.)

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