Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack

Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by yellow_postit on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @01:13PM (#17910741)

What’s the resell market like for EV? I wouldn’t ever buy new and with the change in maintenance I’m wondering how viable just going to a mechanic to checkout a craigslist car purchase will be as EVs make up a greater share of vehicles on the road.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by snark42 on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @04:23PM (#17912451)

> What’s the resell market like for EV?

Leaf's are pretty cheap relative to new, I think some buyers remorse is leading to a flooded market but I'm not sure.

Tesla's aren't that much less than new (although I was looking at "certified" ones through Tesla.) I decided there wasn't much reason to buy used.

Maybe in 3-5 years it will be different.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by btilly on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @07:18PM (#17913701)

Tesla's aren't that much less than new (although I was looking at "certified" ones through Tesla.) I decided there wasn't much reason to buy used.

The reason to buy used is that there is no waiting list so you can get it now.

Which implies as a corollary that if Tesla was able to fill current demand for new cars, then the price of used Teslas would drop substantially.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by rsynnott on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @05:23PM (#17912935)

I suspect part of that is just how much better the current model Leaf is than the old ones. In a rapidly changing market, you can’t expect much resale value. Of course, this implies the next problem; it’s never the right time to buy an electric car, because next year’s range is going to be a lot better..l

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by tomatocracy on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @06:28PM (#17913408)

Right. The logical thing to do is to price it up as a lease without option to purchase / long-term hire contract and compare that to other competitors.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by rootusrootus on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @04:26PM (#17912477)

Resale is extremely weak, even for something like a Model S. Think 50% or less going to auction after three years, and some cars in particular (looking at you 500E) going for 1/6 what they were sold for brand new.

Once the technology stabilizes a bit and becomes more common, resale probably won't be any worse than everything else.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by floatrock on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @05:35PM (#17913021)

That's true only if you compare sticker prices. In reality, a $32k bolt has a $7.5k federal rebate, a $2.5k california rebate, and various city and utility rebates. So a $32k MSRP is actually around $20-22k.

With that in mind, a $16k 3 year old Bolt is actually not that bad.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by Marsymars on Wednesday September 05, 2018 @01:26AM (#17915225)

Meanwhile in Canada, there are no EV rebates (in most provinces), and due to the depreciation of the dollar and Tesla's USD-based pricing, buying a new Model 3 is now only $400 less than the Model S was at launch four years ago.

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Re:Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack by Marsymars on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @01:29PM (#17910925)

If long-term reliability really is good for EVs, it should be cheap for manufacturers to offer long-term warranties, transferable between owners, as a point of differentiation over their competitors. As-is, EVs don't (yet?) have better warranties than ICE cars.

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