EV Discussion thread

JKenH

It seems April has got off to a slow start. I have put a screenshot of YTD up to 3 April (which I believe are the closest to March month end figures) alongside today’s figures. Vauxhall after their fantastic month end registrations have managed just 28 EVs. Teslas registrations, as usual, have fallen off a cliff following the end of quarter push. Maybe things will pick up by the month end.

Edit: correction 

JKenH

Apparently the fall in used EV values is unexpectedly high because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Presumably this would have also affected used ICE and hybrid values.

Car finance firms losing "hundreds of millions” in EV depreciation want Govt support

“Three years ago, we took the view that used values for battery-electric models were unsustainably high,” Setterfield continued. “We assumed significant reductions in used values, but the resulting movement was higher, partly due to unforeseen events such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

With this in mind, the BVRLA has said that it’s “unsustainable for the industry to continue absorbing the cost”, and asked the Government to intervene and provide “targeted grants to support the used BEV market”. 

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/366508/ev-depreciation-costing-car-finance-firms-hundreds-millions-and-theyd-bail-out

jeffuk

With this in mind, the BVRLA has said that it’s “unsustainable for the industry to continue absorbing the cost”, and asked the Government to intervene and provide “targeted grants to support the used BEV market”. 
Government = The tax payer

Grumpy_chap

Are car leasing companies sufficiently essential that they would justify a bail out rather than being allowed to fail?

JKenH

JKenH said:

It seems April has got off to a slow start. I have put a screenshot of YTD up to 3 April (which I believe are the closest to March month end figures) alongside today’s figures. Vauxhall after their fantastic month end registrations have managed just 28 EVs. Teslas registrations, as usual, have fallen off a cliff following the end of quarter push. Maybe things will pick up by the month end.

Edit: correction 

Since my previous post on 9 April Vauxhall have sold a further 46 EVs. Tesla, as often happens in the first month of the quarter also lagged,  adding just a further 23. Looks like April will be a very quiet month for EV sales. 

Grumpy_chap

JKenH said:

Looks like April will be a very quiet month for EV sales. 

Is that surprising?
I suspect a good proportion of purchasers would have sought to get complete in March so as to avoid the VED changes.

JKenH

Grumpy_chap said:

JKenH said:

Looks like April will be a very quiet month for EV sales. 

Is that surprising?
I suspect a good proportion of purchasers would have sought to get complete in March so as to avoid the VED changes.

Not at all, but presumably there would be a number of leases ending from previous Aprils and these would generate some new registrations. I don’t know to what extent the number of leased vehicles would be affected by the VED changes. The additional cost for a £40k+ car will be about £1200 over a 3 year lease or around £33 a month. Presumably if it is a business lease this will be tax deductible. 

1961Nick

When I ordered my first Model 3 in 2021 Tesla's CS was poor but I was prepared to cut them some slack seeing as they were new to the volume car business. I placed an order at the beginning of February 25 for a replacement & can confirm that Tesla's CS sucks more in 2025 than it did back in 2021. The delivery date has shifted 4 times starting in March - all the way to the end of May - back to April & now we're back to May again. I sold the current Tesla on Motorway & had to back out of the deal because one of the delivery dates coincided with a holiday - you get just 7 days to take delivery after which they allocate the car to someone else. The Tesla delivery centres have no idea whereabouts your new car is (or won't part with that information) so you don't get a delivery date until it rolls off the ship. If I was at the end of a PCP or CH deal this would have been a nightmare.

I'd buy a Polestar 4 if it wasn't so big!

ddi

Any recommendations regarding purchasing a 2nd hand EV? 

Martyn1981

ddi said:

Any recommendations regarding purchasing a 2nd hand EV? 

Can you provide some usage preferences?

If you plan to do a large amount of long trips, then you will need one with a bigger battery/range, possibly a Tesla to make use of their charging network which is cheaper. [You can absolutely use a shorter range BEV, but you will need to stop more often, and probably need to use more expensive chargers.]

If you do mostly shorter trips, then your options increase massively.

If its going to be a second car for the household, then you can consider almost anything. Our first toe-dip into the world of BEV's was an older Nissan Leaf with a range of 60-70 miles (we had a petrol car too at the time). But quickly the Leaf replaced almost all mileage, as most trips are short.

Do you have the ability to home charge (off street parking), and an approx budget?