AAA Report: Vehicle Ownership Costs Drop--Except for EVs

insightman

insightman

Well-Known Member
Subscriber
An Autoweek article reviews a AAA report on total vehicle ownership costs:
"From lower depreciation to cheaper fill-ups, AAA’s latest report reveals why owning a new vehicle is more affordable in 2025—unless it’s electric."

The high level of depreciation EVs continue to suffer is a significant factor contributing to the greater cost of owning an EV. Higher insurance costs and worries about the longevity of expensive EV batteries contribute to the reticence to purchase a used EV.

What could change the weak secondary market for EVs? A strong secondary market would remove one barrier to purchasing a new EV.
 
Last edited:
A nice ‘generic’ article but lite on details and sources. Regardless, with Alabama personal property tax, I need to check what the county thinks is the value of my two EVs.

One obvious hole, it wrote about percentage change for petro fuel and electric costs without observing EV cost per mile are in my case, 1/3d of my last Prius.

There are other ‘nits’ so it remains disconnected from my experience.

Bob Wilson
 
Battery tech is rapidly evolving. Li-ion and LiFePo4 tech is the thing now, but sodium ion is quickly shaping up to be a contender. It's certainly possible that Li-based batteries could be obsolete in 3 years. The early adopter eats the curve as i like to say. But, if you wait for the next thing all the time, you'll never have anything. Change is only coming faster...

I also think a big portion of the lack of drop off is charging costs.
gasoline is pretty stable... it's been $3-4 a gallon for the better part of 10 years, minus some ebbs and flows. Even with the value of the dollar declining.
My electric bill, in the meantime, has doubled or tripled, especially in delivery and fee categories.
 
Last edited:
I don't believe Li-ion will be obsolete in 3 years, not even close. But they will continue to be more efficient and cheaper. Solid state has been coming soon for 5+ years, but still seems a ways off before mass implementation. Cost and reliability are still big challenges.

I would like to see more adoption of 800v EVs, to bring down charging speeds, esp the lower end EVs. My Ioniq 6 has already met the charging speed and range requirements for a good trip car. But it is still expensive, despite dropping in price.

So I do agree with the point that EVs will continue to drop in price, which is a very good thing. But it needs to happen faster before it satisfies the masses. We may see a significant drop in EV sales in the near future which could also help bring down the price. However, manufacturers are also likely to cut production, as well as EV innovation, at least in the US. That will not be good, as China and rest of the world will continue to move forward.

I am not looking to buy an EV for the foreseeable future. It won't be because of charging speed or range. I will be looking for L3 Autonomous driver assist. That could be the tipping point for me again. My car has L2, and I like it, but L3 would be even better. I rarely own a car for more than 5 years, and after 3 years I start looking. Both my BEVs are 2023s. But so far nothing has come along that makes me want to replace either of them.
 
My NCA batter pack is already obsolete. Tesla no longer makes them. So I’ll carefully use the rest of its life knowing there is a finite life and no significant salvage value.

I have thought about a range extender to add a few more years but the come a time when you have to let it go.

Happily, I know enough I should find a used EV with life left and usable, driver assistance.

Bob Wilson
 
insightman said:
… ruling out buying another Tesla?
Click to expand...
In another 3-4 years, technology available in the market place will be different. I’ll do a price-performance survey and go down the list.

IMHO, Musk became a distracted CEO and Tesla EV performance has been static. For example, Lucid and Hyundai have more efficient EVs than the Model 3. Tesla technology is good but no longer unique nor efficiency superior.

Bob Wilson
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top