7:35 am, March 15, 2023
Independent used car dealers are being put off stocking EVs as a result of plummeting prices, Car Dealer has been told.
Speaking at last week’s Car Dealer Live conference in Gaydon, a panel of used car dealers said they had been forced to rethink their strategies as a result of the recent slide.
It comes after a drastic cut in new Tesla prices sparked a downward spiral in the value of used EVs.
There have also been concerns about demand and the affordability of used alternative fuelled vehicles.
Speaking to host James Baggott, CarShop CEO Nigel Hurley said the used EV market was still trying to ‘find its level’.
He also expressed relief that his company did not go ahead with plans to invest heavily in EV infrastructure last year.
‘We’re further down the food chain in terms of our stock but we were, at one point last year, getting quite excited about acquiring more EVs and thinking about our infrastructure to support that,’ he said.
‘I think we are quite pleased we didn’t actually because things changed and we won’t now buy an EV unless we think it’s particularly cheap.
‘We’ve had quite a couple of opportunities where we thought we were buying the cars cheap and I think we’ve got a little bit lucky there.
‘That market hasn’t found its level yet and it’s still finding it. We’ve only got two sets of our stock today that’s electric and I can’t see that changing for us.
‘Our heartland is the three to five [years-old] market but we will sell cars at one to two and we will sell cars at seven to eight years old.
‘I think [EV] is such a volatile market at the moment. If you’re a new car buyer, having an EV has got an attractive proposition around it but if you think about buying an EV as a used car there’s no real attractiveness.
‘It’s going to be interesting how that market evolves over the next few weeks and months.
‘I’m in the fortunate position really where I can sit and wait and observe. I don’t have to worry about that market right here right now.’
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Also on the used car dealer panel was Car Quay boss Jamie Caple. He told those present at the British Motor Museum that prior to the pandemic he had been planning to step up his company’s EV offering.
However, ‘crazy’ changes in the market have forced a rethink and he now says there is a real ‘uncertainty’ around the used EV market.
‘To see what’s happened is crazy,’ said Caple.
‘I really empathise with new car franchise guys because they’re having to put in all this infrastructure and money and then you’ve got all these cars coming in when there must be a real level of uncertainty about the future of it.
‘We’ll just look and see if it picks up again. This is the really great thing about being an independent dealer – we can change things up just like that if we want to.
‘We’ll keep an eye on it. If a cheap [Tesla] Model 3 Performance pops up – and I saw one at BCA for around £27-28,000 – that just looks phenomenal value.
‘At that type of dough, I’d go and buy a couple. Whether they’re few and far between, I don’t know but we’ll wait and see.
‘As the market changes, we can flip it and change it as we as we need to.’
Taycan a ‘disaster’
Joining Caple and Hurley on stage were IMDA member Stuart Saunders and supercar dealer Premier GT’s boss David Trigg.
Trigg said that his company was now refusing to buy Porsche Taycans after values dropped so drastically. He described the model as a ‘disaster’.
‘The market has changed massively for us as well,’ said Trigg.
‘The Porsche Taycan, for example, the price is plummeting and we won’t buy them as a dealer now.
‘A lot of people we’ve sold them to, we’re now having awkward conversations with. You’ve got to try and understand that they’re trying to come out of them because it’s not worth it and it’s not the way forward for them.
‘I think for us, I’m still sitting there on the fence waiting to see. We’re not making any knee-jerk reactions. The Taycan was good for us. It’s now a disaster.
‘We’re just sitting back. Our market is still strong and we will just continue to monitor [the situation].’
If you’d like to watch back the session on video, and the rest of the day’s interviews, you can do so with a Watch Online ticket that will allow you to replay the whole event.
Car Dealer Live will be back in 2024 on March 7. Ticket sales will go on sale shortly for those who weren’t at this year’s event.
