It’s been years since I’ve checked the used electric market, but I’m seeing cars like the Hyundai Ionic 6 or Polestar 2 for low 30s, where as they were in the high 40s or mid 50s new a year ago.
My suspicion is that:
- Normal car depreciation when driven off the lot
- General fear of batteries wearing down prematurely, even if the car has ~10k miles
- Any applicable federal rebates or otherwise have already been claimed and can’t be claimed on used vehicles(?)
Is there any other reason why these drop so quickly? Would buying one be considered foolish in anyway?
For Polestar 2 and Tesla model 3 specifically, Hertz has dumped a bunch of slightly used ones on the market and so prices are artificially low at the moment. Hertz did this because people were abusing the cars, resulting in premature tire wear and damage to bumpers etc. Basically they’re too much fun and morons renting them would bump them into things or shred tires with all the instant torque. I expect prices to go back up once the market stabilizes, in the mean time they are a really good deal.
I was going to ask for sauce, but the first result of DDG was enough proof for me.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2024/02/09/renting-electric-cars-makes-sense-why-did-hertz-sell-off-teslas/
If Tesla was just a little bit smarter, they would offer rental companies a software update that would reduce that instant torque just a little bit. It would be trivially easy to do so. Might even improve their somewhat shitty reputation, too.
“If Tesla were just a little bit smarter” load-bearing ‘if’ haha