Electric drivers face struggle to sell their cars due to crashing prices – are you affected?
ELECTRIC drivers face a struggle to sell their cars over crashing prices.
Independent used car dealers are being put off stocking EVs due to plummeting prices.
A panel of used car dealers said in last week’s Car Dealer Live conference that they had been forced to rethink their strategies due to the recent slide.
It happened after a sharp drop in the cost of new Tesla vehicles prompted a decline in the value of used EVs.
CarShop CEO Nigel Hurley told Car Dealer Magazine that he feels relieved that his company didn’t invest in EV infrastructure last year.
“We’re further down the food chain in terms of our stock, but we were, at one point last year, getting quite excited about acquiring more EVs and thinking about our infrastructure to support that.
“I think we are quite pleased we didn’t actually because things changed, and we won’t now buy an EV unless we think it’s particularly cheap.
“We’ve had quite a couple of opportunities where we thought we were buying the cars cheaply and I think we’ve got a little bit lucky there.
“That market hasn’t found its level yet, and it’s still finding it. We’ve only got two sets of our stock today that are electric, and I can’t see that changing for us.
“Our heartland is the three to five [years-old] market, but we will sell cars at one to two, and we will sell cars at seven to eight years old.
Hurley thinks that drivers aren’t keen on buying second-hand electric cars.
He continued: “I think [EV] is such a volatile market at the moment. If you’re a new car buyer, having an EV has got an attractive proposition around it, but if you think about buying an EV as a used car, there’s no real attractiveness.
“It’s going to be interesting how that market evolves over the next few weeks and months.
“I’m in the fortunate position really where I can sit and wait and observe. I don’t have to worry about that market right here right now.”