Bloomberg – The energy transition will falter unless consumers feel more comfortable about buying a used battery-powered vehicle. “You need at least £79,000 ($99,000) to buy a new electric Porsche Taycan in the UK; higher-specification versions of these sporty sedans cost tens of thousands more. However, three-year old Taycans are now available for less than £50,000. A used electric Jaguar iPace SUV – voted World Car of the Year in 2019 — can be yours for under £20,000, and BMW’s boxy i3 electric hatchback is often priced below £10,000 in the second-hand market. Cambridgeshire used car dealer Laurie Kempster of Auto Union Trading Co has sold 15 Porsche Taycans in the past six weeks – in some cases to overseas buyers, for less than half what the vehicle cost when new. “We noticed the price of these cars coming down significantly, and so bought a few and they sold straight away. So we’ve kept buying them,” he told me by phone. “There is demand for used EVs once prices become more reasonable.” Sinking second-hand values are great for potential customers, but they’re painful for early adopters and the car industry: High depreciation dents fleet owner profits and makes new leases more expensive. The energy transition will falter unless governments and the automotive industry can get consumers comfortable buying a second-hand EV. More than three-quarters of cars purchased annually in Europe are pre-owned, yet EVs still account for less than 2% of used car sales in large markets like the UK and Germany. Average advertised prices for second-hand EVs have fallen around 23% in the UK in the past 12 months on a like-for-like basis, according to data compiled by listings site Auto Trader, whereas overall used vehicle asking prices have declined less than 6%. The site now has hundreds of pre-owned Porsche Taycans for sale; other EV models have experienced even worse value declines…

…The danger is there aren’t sufficient buyers once leased corporate vehicles enter the second-hand market, and there’s a mismatch in the type of vehicles available: premium EVs used as company cars might not appeal to private buyers seeking a cheap second-hand model. A glut of second-hand EVs may worsen as fleets and rental companies such as Hertz Global Holdings Inc. dump EVs due to high depreciation and maintenance costs and as emissions regulations force manufacturers to keep selling new EVs, regardless of the strength of demand…”