[UK] Price cuts

[interbear]

Read an interesting article yesterday on Tesla price cuts. Basically said that when Tesla cuts or increases prices, it’s transparent and immediately obvious due to their direct online selling model. So gets a lot of media attention. Other car manufacturers manage to massage / hide their price movements as they sell via their dealer network and most discounting happens in that dealer network. So, less visible and less attention paid. Made sense to me actually.

I looked at pricing for my my Model Y LR (blue) out of interest. It cost me £56,090 when I ordered it in March 2022. The same car is now £54,090 so £2k less. Not overly significant a cut really. Not one to be overly concerned about in terms of depreciation as I’ll be keeping it for 3-4 years anyway. At least that’s the plan unless I get bored or see something new and shiny that grabs my interest earlier. Or something with decent range, auto wipers and cruise control that works better

 

[BelfastEV]

Also new M3 leaked today makes me psychologically devalue the old design

 

[edan]

Also new M3 leaked today makes me psychologically devalue the old design

I have been thinking for some time that all of the people unhappy with the price drops are going to have a shock in q3 when the new version is out, Covid had a huge effect on pricing and things have now returned to normality unfortunately the new version coming out just as. this has happened means there will be another slight impact to previous owners.

 

[AndyFov]

Perhaps, but a M3 is always going to be worth more than a e-Golf or a 2019 Leaf. Unless EVs from other brands crash in value too there'll always be some sort of market for early Model 3s.

I can't see me ever buying a new one, if my early M3 tanks in value presumably the 2021 LR that I'd be looking to replace it with will become more affordable too?

 

[Jason71]

Perhaps, but a M3 is always going to be worth more than a e-Golf or a 2019 Leaf. Unless EVs from other brands crash in value too there'll always be some sort of market for early Model 3s.

I can't see me ever buying a new one, if my early M3 tanks in value presumably the 2021 LR that I'd be looking to replace it with will become more affordable too?

I hate to play to OTA card, its a bit overused, but if Tesla continue to support cars as the do at the moment in 5 years time a 2019 M3 will will be getting a good chunk of updates which is more than a 2019 Leaf will so that should count for something ( so long as its not removing access to more and more existing hardware newer cars don't have!)

 

[andyzdeman]

The sheer number of new teslas M3/MY means many are gonna be worth very little in a few years.

 

[The_Cable_Guy]

i think anyone buying a new age developing tech thinking they were going to hold their value is a little bit short sighted.

Escpecially since tesla are all about mass numbers.

Everything it had in its favour are diminishing rapidly.

 

[Adopado]

If there is any hope of increasing numbers of people driving EVs then price reductions have got to happen... uncomfortable as it may be. They have been way too expensive for many ordinary people to consider. The developing secondhand market for good value EVs will enable ownership to become an option for many more people.

 

[Jason71]

The sheer number of new teslas M3/MY means many are gonna be worth very little in a few years.

Sure a really great car available in low numbers is always going to be the lowest depreciating car but that is unusual.
Historically there are very few Maserati's and Alpha Romeos in the UK but that did not mean they held their value since they were very expensive to own and were unreliable so the used market shunned them.
If Tesla's turn out to be reliable in the long run they should retain a reasonable value. Only about 16-20% of new cars are EV's so in 4 years time people looking for a 4 year old EV will only have 20% of the possible cars out there to chose from so if the energy market stabilises and new prices don't drop a crazy amount I think used Tesla's should have a reasonable resale price for years to come. Not the 8% over 3 years I got on my 2019 M3 but I don't see why depreciation over the long term should not be comparable to historic norms.

 

[WannabeOwner]

The sheer number of new teslas M3/MY means many are gonna be worth very little in a few years.

My view is that when those cars were bought, new, the market of Punters (for an EV at that £price) was X

When those cars come up for sale - e.g. 3 years old / 30,000 miles, they will be the only cars of that age / mileage. Let's say the value has dropped by 50%. "Halve the price, sell to 20x as many people" is a starting point - presumably not that many for "Might be only half the price, but its also well used" !

But the market place will be bigger, at that price point, than the available vehicles. Punter can't buy a "6 year old, low mileage" instead - if they want low mileage the oldest available will be (say) 3 years old. I think that plays into the early adopter's hand.

The price may crash, but that will be accompanied by a fall in new price. So the "cost to replace" will be the same/similar, even if the 2nd price is a pittance, compared to expectation when the car was purchased.

And I agree with @Jason71 that if Tesla keep shipping stuff OTA the car will have up to date maps, and more tech/APPs than now and also more relative to other brands (unless they do actually catch up, but I've been hearing that since I bought my first Tesla in 2015 and it aint happened yet). Tesla is good for 4 miles / kWh - there aren't many alternatives with that sort of efficiency (more will come, but they won't be available to someone wanting a 3-year-old 2nd purchase).

Tesla have a lot of experience in EV battery tech too - which may well translate into less degradation than other marques (esp. compared to a Leaf with lousy BMS!). All those things bode well. And the price of ICE will be tanking - fewer town centres where it will be possible to use them, fuel Green Tax ought to be rising to discourage ICE use, manufacturers curtailing models as the deadline disallowing sales of new ICE approaches, cost of repair increasing, and locations selling fuel decreasing / being replaced by EV charging (as is happening on forecourts in Norway)

My guess is that it will be more of a seller's market, than a buyers one

 

[ajmorr.is]

The sheer number of new teslas M3/MY means many are gonna be worth very little in a few years.

That's not really how the used car market works though. Prices generally find their level due to demand based on usual car factors like quality, reliability, running costs etc; and if the demand was high when new due to these factors then you can expect the demand to be equivalent when selling used.

 

[HenryT]

Sure a really great car available in low numbers is always going to be the lowest depreciating car but that is unusual.
Historically there are very few Maserati's and Alpha Romeos in the UK but that did not mean they held their value since they were very expensive to own and were unreliable so the used market shunned them.

Alpha Romeo was the premium version was it?

 

[Jason71]

And I agree with @Jason71 that if Tesla keep shipping stuff OTA the car will have up to date maps, and more tech/APPs than now and also more relative to other brands (unless they do actually catch up, but I've been hearing that since I bought my first Tesla in 2015 and it aint happened yet). Tesla is good for 4 miles / kWh - there aren't many alternatives with that sort of efficiency (more will come, but they won't be available to someone wanting a 3-year-old 2nd purchase).

by 2025 say, maybe the new cars being sold by other makers will have full OTA the same as Tesla but even if they do catch up I don't think that will translate into full OTA updates retrospectively on 2019, 2020, 2021 cars etc. So other brands old cars will be their old cars but old Tesla's will still be getting significant updates if history is anything to go by.
And you can bet most makers will not want to keep updating old cars even if they can since they would rather sell new ones. There is no profit in free OTA feature updates.

Therefore hopefully in say 10 years time 22 MY will eventually get et the same Bluetooth features that my 2010 Skoda had

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Is it true U.K. numbers actually fell in Q1 compared to last year as I was told in the pub? I thought they had the best selling car in the MY? I guess SMMT would be the place to look but I can only find the MY at the top of the tree of 5 cars, no sign of the M3.

 

[MrT3]

Is it true U.K. numbers actually fell in Q1 compared to last year as I was told in the pub? I thought they had the best selling car in the MY? I guess SMMT would be the place to look but I can only find the MY at the top of the tree of 5 cars, no sign of the M3.

In the UK Tesla are down 14% compared to last year. Q1 last year was the launch quarter of the MY so comparable as both models being sold.

This is in a market where new car registrations is up 18% year on year as other manufacturers have less supply issues.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Electrek reporting price cuts in EU

Tesla cuts prices on Model 3, Model Y by up to 10% in Europe, elsewhere

Tesla has followed up on recent price cuts in the US with significant price drops on the Model 3 and...

electrek.co

"significant price drops on the Model 3 and Model Y in Europe, up to 10% depending on the model and market."

 

[Durzel]

The sheer number of new teslas M3/MY means many are gonna be worth very little in a few years.

That’s the cold, hard reality of it. Tesla are making, and selling, considerably more than the opposition, which means there’s plenty of choice for second hand purchasers.

That will naturally have an impact on pricing.

 

[Jason71]

Electrek reporting price cuts in EU

Tesla cuts prices on Model 3, Model Y by up to 10% in Europe, elsewhere

Tesla has followed up on recent price cuts in the US with significant price drops on the Model 3 and...

electrek.co

"significant price drops on the Model 3 and Model Y in Europe, up to 10% depending on the model and market."

Bang on schedule then. 14 days after quarter end.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Ugh. Need to sell my Y asap. Get off this Tesla train.

 

[Jwdrums]

Looks like they have dropped in line with uk/us cuts in Jan, not further cuts to uk as yet