Mandrake wrote:
If you watch the video I posted above though the guy sitting in the back makes the excellent point that because battery technology is still in its infancy the manufacturing cost of the batteries has come WAY down in the 5 years since the car was originally made, and the battery cost is a large part of the materials cost of the new car.
So because it costs so much less to produce the battery now the lower new cost artificially pushes down the resale value of the old one, which would have stayed higher had the new cost not dropped so much. However once battery tech reaches a price plateau this artificial depression of resale prices will be reduced. On the other hand a replacement battery for an old car may now be cheaper than it would have been several years ago.
Now is definitely not the time to buy NEW EV's if you are price sensitive as battery prices will continue to drop significantly for at least another 5 years - let other more wealthy people take the arrows in the back and then swoop in to collect them when they are 5-10 years old and good value for money, just as we have always done.
Here is some hard data on just how much the price of the battery has dropped in the last 5 years or so. Here is a review from when the Peugeot Ion first came out in 2010:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/car ... eview.html
A generally favourable review, except for one massive sore point - the price! In fact it was so expensive at £28,995 that Peugeot initially only leased the car and didn't sell it outright!! It also mentions in the article that the cost of a replacement battery outside of the (fairly generous 8 year) battery warranty was £19,000
Fast forward to today and the latest version of the Ion is on sale starting at £16,995 brand new, making the entire car cheaper new than a replacement battery in 2010!
So the irony is that although the replacement battery cost in 2010 was scary, with an 8 year battery warranty nobody actually had to pay for one until battery technology had progressed by another 8 years - at which time the cost of the battery must be down to just a few thousand given the entire car including battery is on sale for £16,995.
Things are moving very quickly indeed on the battery front, both in capacity and cost.