“Necessarily skyrocket”
This has driven down resale values of plug-in electrics including the Leaf and General Motors Co. ’s Chevrolet Volt, representing another hurdle for auto makers trying to boost sales of alternative-fuel vehicles.
Is it like your printer? The real cost is in the ink refills?
They use to give away safety razors too, the money was in the blades.
Ping.
Maybe Obama will be able to pick up a used Chevy Volt when he leaves office. #ObamaPromises
We have seen one new Volt here in Wino country since its dismal launch.
We are seeing a few Leafs, they seem very small and fragile.
The Pious seem to be very reliable and people seem more apt to buy another and keep the older one rather than trade the old one in. The owners, both conservative and liberal, like their Piouses.
What gets us are the free charging stations in county and state parks and municipal parking lots. The vehicles get free charging during the workday when the electrical rates for the rest of us are the highest.
A kid with some good mechanic skills can bring a gas car back to good working order.
An electric car will cost more to repair to ok condition than it would to just by a gas car.
It’s like flat-screen TVs. Once they break (especially the screen), they are damn near impossible to fix.
Do the used cars come with rebuilt batteries? No? Seems like buyers are properly pricing in the costs involved in maintaining the car, and actually slightly surprised that gas models aren’t slightly at a premium compared to the battery powered models.
Just remember, one fouled connection in the battery box will require an entirely new battery system, as dealers are forbidden by manufacturers to actually repair anything inside, they must replace the entire unit.
I have prayed that the electric car would go the way of the Edsel. My neighbor bragged about his until low and behold 5 years later it sits in their yard because they cannot afford the new battery.
Its not a matter of being against electric cars but we know they make a lot more waste product in their production and then where do the used batteries go? Is that another form of polution.
Supply and demand. When there’s no demand for these POSs, the price drops like a rock.
Sounds like this is just the all electrics. My own Prius has a 4 cylinder in it and I’d never do the all electric just because I want the backup to the battery.
To be honest, the numbers aren’t much different then I would expect for most cars at the 4 year mark. 20K car for 10K at the 4 year mark...sounds reasonable depending on mileage. Doesn’t it lose ~25% soon as you drive off the lot anyway?
Just to make liberal's heads explode.
The problem with this article is that, when it discusses numbers for resale value, it ignores the $7,500 tax credit and the several-thousand-dollar reductions in MSRP in 2013 to the Leaf and the Volt. There was a similar article to this one back in August about the Volt. I'll just copy and paste a bit of the argument I made then:
...there are a few facts that NLPC glossed over in this article in order to arrive at the 65% loss-of-value figure.
First of all, that figure does not include the fact that the 2014 Volt’s price was dropped to $35k whereas the previous years were $40k. Any time a new model’s price drops, all the older models’ resale value drops along with it. (For example, if you buy a widescreen TV for $3,000 and then the next day it goes on sale for $2,000, good luck trying to sell it to your neighbor for $2,500.)
Secondly, and more importantly, the figure does not include the $7,500 tax rebate that anyone can get when they buy a new Volt. So to get the true cost for a new Volt you have to take the MSRP and subtract $7,500. That is the number that you can then compare to the used value in order to calculate the true “loss-of-value” percentage. So if you pay full MSRP for a new Volt then your true cost will be $35,000 minus $7,500 which is $27,500.
Using that value you get 46% for your loss-of-value figure, which is pretty good by industry standards. In fact, back in 2012, Kelly Blue Book rated the Chevy Volt as the “Best Electric Car” in its 2012 Best Resale Value Awards. Granted, the Volt didn’t have much competition back then.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3190496/posts#28
I didn't even mention in that post that there is an additional $1,000 to $6,000 state tax credit in the states where most electric cars are sold. California, the state with the most EV sales, has a $2,500 credit.
The author of this article clearly knows about the $7,500 federal tax credit and the price cuts because she mentions them elsewhere in her article. Yet she never discusses their obvious impact on the numbers for resale value.
“Its not a matter of being against electric cars but we know they make a lot more waste product in their production and then where do the used batteries go? Is that another form of polution.” —Uversabound
“Yup, and a very nasty one. Counting the pollution created during manufacturing and battery disposal, electric cars are in fact FAR more toxic to the environment than gas vehicles IMHO.” —piytar
Contrary to what you might read in the comments section around the internet, lithium ion batteries are not toxic. Lead acid batteries are far more toxic and we handle them just fine. (Just google lithium battery toxicity and read any of the results.)
Also, these batteries are way too valuable to not be reused or recycled in some way. There is a market for second-hand automotive batteries for homeowners with solar panels. Furthermore, Tesla and Toyota at least have recycling programs for the batteries in their vehicles. Regarding Toyota:
Forget those fears that hybrid and electric vehicles will result in landfills full of dead batteries.
When Toyota hybrid battery packs reach the end of their lives, every piece is recycled. And it's all because of a program launched a year ago by Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. and its dealers.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120102/RETAIL07/301029980/1147
I currently own 2 vehicles, a Prius and an F350. Guess which one has had the lowest total cost of ownership to drive? I’m glad to see the price come down on the Prius. The Prius is the best car I ever owned. I’d buy another one without a second thought.
