[Tell It Right]

The depreciation on these cars is very high in comparison to ICE vehicles. If you purchased the car outright (vs lease) and you keep the car for 5 or 10 years, you will not get very much for it. My depreciation for a 2023 Ioniq 5 purchased in 2/23 went from a purchase price of $49K to $30K in one year. The reasons have been documented in this website by many owners. Because the technology changes so frequently and the impact of Tesla continuing to reduce their prices, it is really out of our hands. What I did was trade in my Ioniq 5, received $30,500 and I leased an 2024 Ioniq 6SE for 36 months, 12K miles a year for zero down and payments of $339 for 36 months. I am protected from significant depreciation, lowered my monthly payments from $639 to $339 and can turn it in after 3 years and then go after the next great EV. I just wanted to share my experiences with you.

I guess it depends on if the sell value matters to you.

Every car my wife and I owned (gas cars) was driven until repair cost exceeded replacement cost. In other words, when I eventually sold them I got little for them anyway. It's our intention to do the same with our 2022 I5 (our first EV). Basically, it's part of our financial planning that helps us retire in our 50's. So for us, resale value isn't much of a consideration. For me it's how many miles can we get out of it, while getting a good miles/kWh throughput, without much in repair costs (minus expecting to replace the battery at about 10 years), and all while most of all the power we consume in our house is homemade from solar (including charging the EV). As long as the I5 keeps doing that for me, it has more value to me than anyone would pay me for it.

But for some people, if it's your intention to sell the car every few years to have something new and hip, then I guess resell value matters.

 

[CoSolar]

I can't understand people who are considering selling a vehicle because of poor resell value. Resell value is only realized when you actually sell. We own a Toyota Tacoma with great resale value and an Ioniq 5 with poor resale value. Since we have no plans to sell either there is currently no realized benefit from the Tacoma's better resell value. Of course I would prefer a vehicle with good vs poor resale value.

 

[Fan of EV]

I can't understand people who are considering selling a vehicle because of poor resell value. Resell value is only realized when you actually sell. We own a Toyota Tacoma with great resale value and an Ioniq 5 with poor resale value. Since we have no plans to sell either there is currently no realized benefit from the Tacoma's better resell value. Of course I would prefer a vehicle with good vs poor resale value.

I have only sold or traded in a car once in my life. My usual mode is to buy the car sometimes used, more recently new, and drive it until it is ready to be hauled off for scrap. Even low end cars with bad reputations for reliability I have gotten a lot of years of use.

With the changes in battery technology, I expect my 2022 Limited to be totally outdated in addition to having a battery that is well past its prime by the time I get rid of the car. I guess the question is how many years or miles will that be.

 

[rbdavis808]

I can't understand people who are considering selling a vehicle because of poor resell value. Resell value is only realized when you actually sell. We own a Toyota Tacoma with great resale value and an Ioniq 5 with poor resale value. Since we have no plans to sell either there is currently no realized benefit from the Tacoma's better resell value. Of course I would prefer a vehicle with good vs poor resale value.

Ditto.

I have only sold or traded in a car once in my life. My usual mode is to buy the car sometimes used, more recently new, and drive it until it is ready to be hauled off for scrap. Even low end cars with bad reputations for reliability I have gotten a lot of years of use.

Double ditto.

Motor vehicles, not investment vehicles!!

 

[SalisburySam]

We recently purchased a new waffle maker. We had our previous waffle maker, which made great waffles and we were very satisfied with it, for only a couple of months. I noticed at neighborhood garage sales that similar models were being sold at less than half of what we paid for it. Obviously we couldn’t take a financial hit like that so we sold the old one to get out from under that huge depreciation penalty, and bought our new one. I can only hope I don’t experience the same again in two months time. Umm, and again two months later. Sheesh!*

I mean, we all know an owned depreciating item does just that: depreciate. The rate is dependent upon lots of things, mostly what a potential buyer thinks the item is worth. But even that is based on their available cash, trade press and social media reviews, buyer opinion of the item, need for the item, scarcity, location, recalls, NHTSA investigations, amount of alcohol consumed last night, falling out of bed, argument with SO, and dozens if not hundreds of other factors not relevant to what you as the owner think the car may be worth. And depreciation is highly variable as these factors change.

Businesses that lease fleets of vehicles have the wherewithal and need to consider depreciation in their fleet holdings as well as how important that is to their financials. Individual owners? I’d offer that’s a far lesser consideration than vehicle color, features, meeting family needs, etc. Otherwise no one would buy a new vehicle, only lease or buy used, er sorry, “pre-owned.”

*Story is totally untrue. Previous waffle maker died an inglorious death.

 

[hpark21]

Big thing here is that EV will depreciate FAR quicker (currently) than equivalent ICE car just because there are new EV's coming out that have better features/better batteries/more range/better tech/cheaper etc. There is also looming Chinese EV hitting US shores - when will it happen? i don't know - more due to unique US dealership model for sale/distributions.

ICE cars tend to depreciate less because they generally are cheaper, mature tech (for MOVING the car - electronics are advancing, yes), etc and also does not have $7500 credit which depreciates EV instantly by $7500 the day it rolls off the lot (even though YOU may not qualify). That said, still in general ICE car still depreciates 50% in about 3-5 years of use. Even more for high priced cars. It is common for $110k BMW 7 series to drop to $40k after 3-5 years. In that regards, Model S/X Porsche EV may have better retention than other $100k+ ICE cars.

For EV, it also appear to have hit this chasm of adoption. It looks like people who wants an EV already got one and the ones on the sidelines are just looking for some kind of breakthrough before jumping into get one. (Battery/charging tech, infrastructure improvement, etc.) Also there are people who currently CAN'T get one due to cost or lack of infrastructure - rental apartment, middle of the country so no public DCFC around.

For older EV's the inevitable cost of battery pack replacement is also an issue. Tranny or engine replacement is going to cost around $5-6k but battery pack replacement is pretty much always seem to be quoted at $15-25k which is like 3-5 engine/transmission replacement cost, combined with rapid depreciation makes it a double whammy for older EV's.

 

[zooomart]

Most used EVs will never get a replacement battery. At 100k miles, say the battery is at 85% (it could be better)No need to replace it. For a commuter car it will have stable value because of known low cost to maintain. It is oil changes, replacing water pumps, belts /hoses, tune ups etc that add up for ICE cars proving an advantage for BEV. Time will tell if the lower cost of ownership of the I5 is realized. I suggest the >5yo used BEV value will be helped by how much life is likely left.
I talked with a taxi owner in Lisbon Portugal in February. He picked us up in a Nissan Ariya. He had 160k KM and only replaced tires, windshield wipers and cabin filters. I should have asked how much range he lost but he said he will likely keep it until 300k. At that point he said the charge might not last all day like he needs. But it will be so much better than the Nissan Leafs he used to drive.

 

[Fan of EV]

Most used EVs will never get a replacement battery. . .

Early days so the trend is not firm yet. That said, today I used Car Scanner to get the state of health on the traction battery in my Ioniq 5 and it shows 99.6% I’ve had the car for a bit over 2 years & 3 months (2.25 years) and driven it just under 38k miles.

Assuming the state of health is accurate, the battery ages uniformly with time and mileage, and I consider 85% the limit of being acceptable then I am on track for 1.4 million miles and/or 84 years of battery life.

So basically, with my driving and charging habits the traction battery is not the item that limits the life of the car. Most likely it will die in an accident when the damage repair cost exceeds the market value. Pretty much what happened to a previous car of mine that a truck backed into when it was 13 years old and had over 220k miles.