Depreciation. It’s the nasty side to buying a new car that often amounts to a slap in the face worth several thousand dollars.
But the gut-punch you get after driving off a dealer’s lot is even worse with electric cars according to a new analysis performed by Kelly Blue Book. It shows that Pure electric vehicles drop greatly in value over the first five years of ownership. In the worst case, Nissan’s Leaf is expected to be worth 15 percent of its original price while the Ford Focus Electric is supposed to keep 20 percent or 28 percent for the Chevrolet Spark EV.
Part of the poor residual value boils down to the fact that people who drive electric cars don’t generally pay the full MSRP. With federal tax incentives of up to $7,500 along with some state and local incentives, few if any pay the full price. Cars sold at a discount often depreciate quickly.
Still, cars with gasoline engines to enhance their long-range driving ability keep more of their original value. The plug-in version of Toyota’s Prius has a residual value of 35 percent, which is only 2 percent below the normal Prius.
[Source: USA Today]
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