- Joined
- Jun 13, 2022
- Messages
- 6,758
- Reaction score
- 9,873
- Points
- 2,778
- Location
- Paignton, UK
- Driving
- MG4
Dealers have a lot of costs used cars need to cover including premises, staff, marketing, VAT on all sales, inspection, servicing and correction of dents, scratches, scuffed wheels, new tyres, valeting etc...I think this is the problem with PCP. The dealer I sold my Kona to made £3k gross mark up after my trade in so add 3k to the trade value and your at £11,500 giving a retail not far off your balance. I guess it depends if you want to keep the car or not as it has a known history with you from new. I think in 3- 4 years it will be interesting to see what EV residuals are, in theory by 2029 there will be more demand for second hand EVs which may help residuals.
The net profit with your Kona will be a small fraction of £3k. Even that figure assumes the new buyer didn't negotiate a discount.
Then, they are on the hook for some of problems (outside warranty) that might happen in the first 6 months after it is sold to another owner, so another significant fraction will be set aside to cover these possible expenses.
They will probably end up with a profit of £1-1.5k. There has to be enough profit to justify taking used cars in, or dealers wouldn't have any incentive to deal in them, so this is reasonable.
Residuals in my view are likely to continue to stay low as huge numbers of EVs are coming off-lease/contract in the next year (particularly Motability and corporate fleets) and supply will outstrip demand.
Government mandates will continue to drive supply higher ahead of demand, which will keep values depressed. EV production costs continue to drop as manufacturers adapt, so lower new prices will continue to put used prices under pressure.
Eventually people will realise what amazing value used EVs are and used prices will stabilise - but I don't see them rising at all for years - probably after a lot of makers have gone bust and been consolidated and the marketplace stabilises.