According to a new report from Done Deal, Ireland’s largest classifieds site, and first reported by Raidió Teilifís Éireann News, electric automobiles across Ireland, on average, lose 41% of their value over the first three years.
Done Deal said a new vehicle purchased three years ago in the country will depreciate by 33%, however, for electric and diesel cars, that figure is 41% and 43%, respectively.
Done Deal found gasoline cars hold more value over the first three years than any other types. After the three years, gasoline cars lost 24% of their value, while Hybrid engine vehicles depreciated by 26%.
“The biggest impact on Electric Car resale value appears to come down to technology, which is changing rapidly,” said Martin Clancy from DoneDeal.
“Electric cars produced even in 2016 have a much shorter range and fewer features than the newer models. As the Financial Times recently pointed out the retention value of electric cars is still a relatively new area, with concerns over the depreciation of battery life and performance linked to the value of the vehicle itself.”
The most popular electric car in the country this year isn’t a Tesla, but rather a Nissan Leaf with sales of 944 units, followed by the Hyundai Kona (897), Renault Zoe (219) and E-Golf (171). Tesla came in dead last with only 60 new units sold, 38 were Model S and 22 Model X. Almost a quarter of all new Tesla sales were in Dublin.
About 43% of electric car sales this year occurred in Dublin, then Cork with 12%, and Kildare with 5%.
Back in July, Tesla’s Elon Musk insisted that the company’s electric cars will be appreciating assets.
If we make all cars with FSD package self-driving, as planned, any such Tesla should be worth $100k to $200k, as utility increases from ~12 hours/week to ~60 hours/week
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2019
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He claimed in a podcast interview in April that Tesla cars would only appreciate when they’re fully capable of autonomous driving.
He stood by his claim, again, this time, it was on Twitter in mid-July when he responded to a follower who called his statement “really dumb.”
Not sure if joke or just really dumb. These are absolutely not appreciating assets and saying otherwise is a fool’s errand.
— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyQ) July 16, 2019
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As far as the Done Deal report, electric cars are a terrible investment at the moment; technology is evolving so quickly that last year’s models are already out of date.
So far, no used Tesla’s have appreciated in value in Ireland.
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