After a slow start, electric vehicles are quickly growing in popularity, but the price tag of a new EV remains a barrier for many Australians. That's expected to change very soon, with experts predicting a booming second hand electric vehicle market over the next year.
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00:00 If you were out there looking for a second-hand EV, you'd be really struggling. Just as the
00:08 second-hand vehicle market more broadly has been quite hot ever since COVID, there's really
00:13 a minuscule number of second-hand EVs getting around. And the reason this is really critical
00:19 is we're a country that many of us do buy second-hand cars, especially for EVs. Your
00:25 average price is upwards of $60,000 for a new EV. We've got the cost of living crunch
00:31 happening at the moment, and switching to electric is going to be maybe further down
00:36 the priority list. So second-hand electric vehicles, we've been talking to auction houses,
00:41 retailers, they're saying they've only got about 100, 200 second-hand EVs in stock at
00:47 the moment. But the good news is this will change in the next year or two. We're seeing
00:52 this real surge in sales at the moment, particularly governments and corporate fleets taking on
00:59 large numbers of EVs brand new, using them as part of their fleets. And because they're
01:06 run by government or corporate fleets, they're pretty well maintained. They've got a good
01:09 service history, and there's going to be a pretty quick turnover. So retailers and auction
01:14 houses and experts are expecting in the next year or so, we're going to see a really nice
01:18 pipeline of second-hand EVs.
01:20 And how reliable are used EVs?
01:22 Well unsurprisingly, batteries are the big concern for many, given it's basically a battery
01:27 on wheels. One argument could be made that there's actually less to worry about with
01:32 an EV because you've got a lot less moving parts. You don't have an internal combustion
01:37 engine. You don't have all those issues that go with maintaining a petrol or diesel engine.
01:43 But battery is obviously a big concern for many who are maybe going out and looking at
01:47 the moment. Many of the newer models, perhaps they have a longer longevity, it's expected
01:52 they'll have. But even some of the older ones are still getting around, you know, eight,
01:56 10 years and they've still got their life in the battery. The key thing for people to
02:01 look out for is the battery health, how old it is, is it in warranty? A lot of these batteries
02:06 have between six to 10 years of warranty. So there's that kind of assurance from the
02:12 manufacturer that if it does break or it dies by that point, you can get another one. But
02:16 for those who maybe are looking for an older EV and they want to buy one, the batteries
02:21 may be at the end of its life. Replacement batteries are becoming increasingly affordable
02:28 and we are seeing a number of new apps and different mechanisms you can use to test the
02:32 battery health. So the real message is to look around, do your homework on the battery
02:37 health. The other thing is tyres. It might surprise people that tyres actually can wear
02:43 out quicker on EVs because they're heavier vehicles. So you've got to check the tread
02:47 of the tyre as well. But that's really just straightforward. People are pretty used to
02:51 checking out the condition of their tyres. So it's really just batteries and tyres to
02:55 look out for. Cost has always been a barrier. You said a brand new EV can cost upwards of
03:01 $60,000. How affordable are secondhand ones? Yeah, so $60,000 for a new. We are seeing
03:06 a few new entrants from some of the Chinese manufacturers. Their new cars will be potentially
03:12 under $40,000. And it's no longer just your Teslas that are dominating this market. Certainly
03:18 they are still a very predominant player in this. But we are seeing some cheaper ones
03:24 enter the market. And with this higher turnover, more coming into the secondhand EV market,
03:30 we can start to expect that $40,000 price barrier really be shattered. And some people
03:37 we've been talking to, they've found some for $20,000 and they're going quite well.
03:41 So it's getting down. You're probably, many of the experts are saying you can't really
03:45 expect to get one under $10,000 right now that's reliable. Maybe there's some out there
03:51 you can be hopeful with. But at the moment, you're still going to have to fork out at
03:56 least in the tens of thousands.
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