After good sales figures in 2023, demand for electric cars has recently stagnated.
One reason: their rapid loss of value.
A new analysis has now confirmed this again.
Munich – Electric cars are currently subject to a major price drop.
After just three years, an average battery car (BEV) loses more than half of its original value.
But even the low dealer prices have not been able to contribute to higher demand for electric cars until recently.
Their rapid loss of value was now also the subject of an analysis by the management consultancy Berylls, which was first reported on by
Wirtschaftswoche
.
According to her, an average battery-powered car with an exemplary new price of 43,600 euros and a mileage of 60,000 kilometers would only cost 18,800 euros after three years.
And would have lost 57 percent of its original value.
According to industry experts, there is still no change in the predicament in sight: “Young used BEVs are on the market like lead, the service life is increasing and residual values are in free fall,” they announced in Munich.
This not only presents owners of electric cars with a difficult decision.
Demand for electric cars has recently fallen significantly
On the one hand, the Berylls agency sees overall stagnating demand for battery-powered cars as the reason for the low trading prices on the used car market for electric cars.
In addition, many new models with longer ranges and lower prices are currently being brought onto the market.
This makes it more difficult to resell used electric cars, which is now evident not only in Germany, but also in France and Great Britain - because there too, the residual values of electric cars have recently been in free fall.
In addition, many used electric cars are large, expensive SUVs and are uninteresting for many used buyers.
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Rows of electric cars at the Changan Automobile Distribution Center in Chongqing, China.
© IMAGO/CFOTO
Industry experts have calculated a residual value loss of almost three billion euros for the approximately 524,000 newly registered electric cars in Germany last year.
They see “hardly any hope in the used car market” for the current generation of electric cars.
“The only thing that can be minimized here is the immense losses,” they explained.
Due to the rapid loss in value of electric cars, leasing companies have also recently recorded losses
Leasing companies have also recently suffered from the sharp drop in prices for used electric cars.
As a rule, the conditions of the leasing contracts are based on the estimated used value of a vehicle at the time the contract expires.
The payments are intended to cover the loss of value.
However, if the used car value falls more than expected, leasing companies lose money on these vehicles.
Manufacturers, dealers and leasing companies that have electric cars on their books are therefore advised to revamp their sales model: Instead of selling electric cars, they should better keep them and lease them to drivers on a second or even third-party basis or rent them out via subscription .
This not only makes it possible to cushion losses, but also to maintain control over valuable battery materials.
This could be an enormous advantage for manufacturers in order to meet the legally required recycling quotas for battery production.
This was recently the case with electric cars, among other things because the US electric car manufacturer Tesla reduced sales prices several times, sometimes very significantly, due to the declining demand for new electric vehicles.
As a result, in order to remain competitive, other companies have also reduced their prices for new electric cars, which has led to a collapse in used car prices.
(fh)
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