Fake news abound. Autotrader says less people have searched for EV’s on their site, and suddenly EV sales are crashing….lol.
Is it fake news or only fake news because you don’t want to agree with it!
Both the AA and DfT have mirrored what Autotrader has said. Although nearly three quarters said they would buy a BEV in the future. The biggest reasons were, they are too expensive and the DfT also said lack of chargers were amongs’t the biggest reasons.
BEVs are a niche market gaining intrest from prospective buyers, like anything that occupies that end of the market prices remain high. However as there market share and demand grows, there prices start to flatten out, just the same as any market. Then theres the growing number of Chinese BEV’s, especially in mainland Europe, mainly due to the side of the road they drive at the moment, which will also help to flatten out prices.
Renaults stance is just pure greed and I suspect there not the only ones. In return this is fueling leasing companies to anticipate higher han normal depreciation values. However as the BEV market continues to stabilize, depreciation values will change very little if at all. What will change is the residual value , which is quite normal. For example the BMW BEV will hold on to its value and depreciate far less than a Renault or Peugeot BEV of an equivulent size. No different from there ICE counterparts.
Chip shortages (European manufacturers have seemed to have fared less favourable than other markets with this) have also sent prices soaring in both the new and secondhand markets, as demand outstripped supply. As this resolves and manufacturing outstrips demand prices will fall. As more foreign markets enter Europe prices will flatten out, as predicted by European governments BEV’s will cost similar to that of their ICE counterparts. If the likes of Renault think they can hold on to their pricing strategy, there very much mistaken.
The fact that the EU have recently stepped back on the ICE ban will have an effect here, regardless what our government has said with their rehotric, after all you have only got to look at where are biggest market share of vehicles come from. Soon after the EU’s pushback date announcemet, our government have effectively brought forward the date, telling automakers selling in the UK, will be required to sell increasing percentages of zero-emissions vehicles every year from 2024. The government will then backtrack on this as we get closer to the initiall date as manufcturers are unlikely to conform to what the UK alone wants.
Come 2028/29 if the UK hasn’t pushed back the date, manufacturers will sell off their remaining ICE vehicles at discounted prices. Those that do very little mileage or only spend £3k in fuel over x years, the temptation will be too high not to resist buying, especially if a BEV counterpart is near £10k or more to buy.
Even when the end comes on buying a new ICE vehicle, they will continue to be on our roads for some time to come. So your point “they are obsolete as steam locomotion and prices are not important.” is rather premature!