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Comment by Ekaros | Hacker News Reader

Not to forget greater depreciation. So for those who drive relatively little the ICE card might still have lower total cost of ownership. Not to forget time comparison on fuelling versus charging.

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When you buy used, the depreciation works in your favour.

You can get a mint condition IONIQ 5 with 300bhp and 20-minute charging for less than a new Corolla.

Does it still charge as new?

Used cars still take a full fuel tank.

Yes, and it's easy to verify how much of the original capacity remains (95% typically).

The deprecation has very little to do with the cars themselves. It's mainly due to original prices being inflated during covid demand spike + chip shortage followed by releases of decent brand new EVs under £25K.

Used cars have piston ring wear that reduces their efficiency and thus milage.

Which can be repaired, even if the whole motor has to be opened.

Which costs money...

Much less than with a second hand EV, possible battery issues, and the whole subscription model.

A 250,000 mile Tesla battery is less likely to need replacement (3% odds p.a.) than a 250,000 mile Toyota engine (4% odds p.a.). And a Tesla battery is slightly below average reliability compared to other brands and of course a Toyota motor is more reliable than any other brand.

I would bet that this is different for cars made in the last 3-4 years. More and more stats from the automobile clubs are rolling in that show that electric vehicles last much longer, because they have less moving parts, and that batteries last much longer than expected.

So as of today, I’d certainly buy electric if I was worried about depreciation.

Surely depreciation is determined by the buyer's expected price? So it doesn't matter if objectively you say the battery is at 95% health but all the buyers apply a steep discount due to it being an EV.

And for the buyer, it's about perceived value compared to other vehicles. Even an unused well-stored 6 year old EV would have to sell at substantial discount compared to its purchase price because new EVs are just better

Depreciation will slow down when the rate of improvement slows down

It is not like normal cars don't already last very long time. Decade plus on good brands is nothing now. EVs may or may do pretty much the same.

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