How fast do electric cars depreciate?
Recently my nephew decided it was time to get an electric car and trade-in his ‘hand me down’ compact petrol car which was more than 15 years old.
There was nothing wrong with his 15 year old car, just that it was rather plain inside the cabin. no fancy screens, no ambient lighting and it was not very powerful when he took his once a month drive back to see his parents.
It was however instalment free and repairs and preventive maintenance was very low as it was a trusted Korean made compact SUV.
Now, with a good stable job on Penang island and accessible charging infrastructure available, he wanted a shiny new electric car. So, he purchased a brand new latest arrival electric car (not a discounted model that was launched a year ago)
Then 7 months into ownership and having saved a bit of money on running costs (since battery charging is slightly lower per km against RON95 fuel) he came to see me to complain about high depreciation.
Yes, the shiny new EV he bought 7 months ago was RECENTLY offered with a huge discount nationwide and even though the advertisement said demo units on discount, he visited the showroom to find out they were brand new cars with a heavy 25 percent discount.
This means his EV is now worth even lower as a used EV with 9,000 plus kms driven.
I explained to him that this is NOT depreciation for him and he should not worry about it as he is NOT SELLING his EV and instead just feeling like he lost 7 months salary because the new car price has been discounted and his used value has ben pushed down (ONLY IF HE IS SELLING HIS EV right now).
Still, for young adult, he cant stop thinking about it as office colleagues and also friends are reminding him when the online FB adverts appear for the lower price.
