Electric Vehicles

Then assume straight line depreciation between the car brand new and the car when it is scrap. If a $60,000 car lasts 20 years and you own it the whole time, you can consider the depreciation to be $3000/year if you'd like.

Either way, at the end of the car's useful life you need to be prepared to pony up more money to buy the next one.

Unfortunately, you can't ignore depreciation. It's rarely possible to actually drive a car into the dirt, as they can last for hundreds of thousands of miles if properly maintained.

Even if you intend to drive the car into the ground, you usually can't. Every time you get on the road it's a roll of the dice. Over enough time, eventually you roll snake eyes. You can be the best driver in the world, you can't beat physics. If someone pulls out of a parking lot right in front of you, you're going to crash. You can't skill your way out of minimum stopping distance.

And this happens, depreciation matters regardless of your choices. The insurance company is going to offer you a settlement based on the depreciated value of the vehicle. Sure, in theory you could say, "well, they gave me the value of a 10 year old car, so I'm just going to buy another copy of the same car I just totaled!" But that rarely works in practice. Once they get that old, you really have to worry if the old owner took care of it properly or not. Driving a car into the dirt works well when you can be the original owner and know that the maintenance has been kept up with.

I drove a 20+ year old car up until I had a kid, and suddenly I started to care about those safety features from the previous 20 years (like airbags and crumple zone improvements).

It matters if you are in a collision for the payout.

Can cost you more to maintain it though.

In the context of OP, depreciation means that a “$50K when new” car may only be worth ~$35K if you choose to buy it 1-2 years later.

So it’s not so much about it’s residual value at any point in time, but rather how EVs tend to have a steeper depreciation curve at the beginning - making lightly used models a more attractive bargain.

Hello fellow Buzz owner. I also bought a 2025 buzz new a couple of weeks ago. So far love having the EV kid hauler

Ordered a LWB earlier in the year, still waiting on delivery - currently due mid-Nov., but with the Suez Canal looking to be off-limits due to the conflict in Yemen - not sure if/when it’ll land here in Australia. 😭

How’re you finding it, in these first few weeks? Any quirks/niggles you weren’t expecting, or adjustments you’ve needed to make?

Gotta increase both the mileage and the price numbers to get something in the same class but as an EV. 36k EUR gets me in a 2023 EQE with 157k km. A6 and E-class are the same class of car (direct competitors) and EQE is supposed to be the electric E-Class. Using this one for the comparison because it's highly unpopular so about 20k cheaper than a similarly aged BMW i5 and Audi A6 E-tron hasn't been out long enough to get a 3 year old one anyway.

Now compare it to my 1800€ diesel A6 Allroad from 2007 with I don't care how many kilometers because the warranty is over anyway. How many years for that price difference to pay off? Maintenance and diesel have been about 3-4k a year for me, charging would be ~800 a year if I only ever charge at home and never on a public charger and get the official consumption figures. Puts me at roughly 2-3k saved per year on a 30k price difference, in a car that will depreciate more than 2-3k a year for the next 4-5 years. And I know that if you get sudden battery failure, Mercedes will tell you the battery warranty only covers "up to the value of the car", which is less than the battery costs at this point, so you have to put 10-20k up yourself. Suspect other manufacturers are going to claim similar bullshit.

And if you're going to ask why I'm only comparing to the same class: even significantly newer cars from cheaper manufacturers don't compare. Only recently tested a Volvo XC60, suspension was shit. A few years ago tested Hyundai Ioniq 5, suspension was utter shit. Rather be driving a 25 year old S-Class or A8 than a brand new Hyundai or Kia.

EVs will start making financial sense for us folks who know how to use a wrench when you can a used luxury one for 5k and know you can get a known good replacement battery for <2k and motor for ~500 AND can replace them at home.

I don't use it that much to save those 5k.

I cannot afford it.

Only under 25 k€ brand new electric in Finland now seems to be a JAC (never heard) E30X and BYD Dolphin Surf.

Mentions to Citroën e-C3 and Hyundai Inster for being non Chinese at 25ish.

Cheapest new ICE is about 19k, so almost no difference, but still some. Those will be much more ratty models, though.