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EVs are not exactly hot in the secondary market right now, partly because the technology is still evolving rapidly

• audunw 3y ago
  In my area it seems that very old EVs hold their value quite well. If you get a good measure of the state-of-health on the battery, and it’s OK, an old EV can be a very reliable car, with very little need for service, compared to an ICE car the same age. Like, the value of an ICE goes down to the scrap value. The value of an EV seems to hit a floor. I suspect this could be improved even further if we got really good and affordable battery replacements. Range could be better than new, and motor+inverter is likely to be problem free. It feels like doing big repairs on old ICE cars is futile because something else expensive will fail soon after. At least that was the case with my dad’s cars. With EVs it’s just the battery that’s the main worry. Problem with old EVs now is there wasn’t that many of them, so no economies of scale on the battery replacement. You can get a good upgrade for original Nissan Lead , but it’s expensive. Anyway, for 3-5 yo EVs there’s been some new models and price drops that have been quite brutal, is my impression at least.
  • hnav 3y ago
    We can look at the Toyota Prius since it's mass-produced and has both technologies within. The big-ticket item that usually needs fixing as the mileage goes up is the (nicad) battery pack. Upgrades (lifepo4) are available and cost in the range of $2000. For a battery that's <2kwh. Now scale that up to be able to power an EV and you can see why it's Nissan Leafs that are scrap value once the (admittedly sub-optimally cooled) batteries go.