Toyota BZ4X Resale Value

[David64]

 

Was shocked to find out (curiosity), when using one of the car valuation sites that my Toyota BZ4X (2024) with 3,500 miles on the clock was valued at £26k. This also seems to be reflected in the used car market. Anybody else have similar experiences. Why the greater than 50% depreciation? 

Thanks.   

[FROSTYBALLS]

A possible insight - https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/-government-must-take-action-on-falling-used-ev-values-says-bvrla

[flash22]

no one wants the liability of a used EV, insurance, Battery degradation, road tax as of 2025 and lack of infrastructure, That is why most are on PCP or Lease

[David64]

So much for trying to do the best for the planet and switching to a greener alternative (leaving aside that EV's contribute to CO2 in their manufacture and disposal). 

[FROSTYBALLS]

A colleague of my wife who had a 72 reg Tesla on an NHS lease, recently had the Battery pack fail.  Replacement cost £18,000. Car, effectively scrap, handed back to the lease company. Wouldn't have another Tesla.

[Cyker]

6 hours ago, David64 said:

Was shocked to find out (curiosity), when using one of the car valuation sites that my Toyota BZ4X (2024) with 3,500 miles on the clock was valued at £26k. This also seems to be reflected in the used car market. Anybody else have similar experiences. Why the greater than 50% depreciation? 

Thanks.   

The problem is there's no demand from consumers so the car's aren't being bought, meanwhile fleets are continuously buying new ones and then selling them on after 3 years or whatever, so the supply is out-stripping the demand significantly.

Instead of fixing the problem, i.e. making EVs better for the general user by investing in it, helping new technologies get to market faster and doing something about the godawful charging infrastructure, they're just ramming more and more useless legislation into the market which is putting people off even more.

If the market had been allowed to evolve naturally, we'd be seeing a natural ramp-up of EV demand as these new Battery techs hit the market, as the Battery is literally the biggest thing holding them back.

However, world governments again try to wag the dog and forcing people into them before they're ready, and this is having the opposite effect.

 

5 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

A colleague of my wife who had a 72 reg Tesla on an NHS lease, recently had the battery pack fail.  Replacement cost £18,000. Car, effectively scrap, handed back to the lease company. Wouldn't have another Tesla.

Sadly this is not just a Tesla problem - Every current EV has this problem and it's one thing all the people pushing EVs are just burying their heads about - Unlike a 10-15 year old ICE car which can be bought for a few hundred quid and have repairs done with cheaper after-market parts etc. to make it work, all old EVs will just become scrap as nobody is going to pay 10x the car is worth to replace the Battery.

I really don't know what the solutions for this could be because the economics just don't work. Maybe if some sort of core charge is mandated by law, so you can buy a new battery like you do with Toyota hybrids, but you get most of the cost refunded back when you return the old unit. However, often the manufacturer has moved on by then and the batteries are no longer manufactured - This is why e.g. Tavarish just ripped the whole hybrid system out of the McLaren P1 he's repairing, as they quickly found replacing the flood-damaged battery pack was virtually impossible - so unless some sort of standardization is also mandated then this won't work in the long term, esp. because, unlike mechanical parts, they can't manufacture a load of batteries and just store them in a warehouse for 10 years.

 

[Mister Mike]

19 hours ago, David64 said:

 

Was shocked to find out (curiosity), when using one of the car valuation sites that my Toyota BZ4X (2024) with 3,500 miles on the clock was valued at £26k. This also seems to be reflected in the used car market. Anybody else have similar experiences. Why the greater than 50% depreciation? 

Thanks.   

The rightwing press in the UK doesn’t help matters, as they constantly tell lies about how often EVs catch fire. To read some newspapers, you’d think charging your car is positively dangerous and will burn your house down. There are hundreds of petrol fires every day but they don’t make headline news. The stats are that a BEV is at least 20 times less likely to go up in flames as a petrol car, but the papers won’t report that. They also have some mad idea in their heads that they are too heavy for car parks and the brake pads wear out in no time and cause more pollution, none of which is true.

[philip42h]

19 hours ago, David64 said:

Was shocked to find out (curiosity), when using one of the car valuation sites that my Toyota BZ4X (2024) with 3,500 miles on the clock was valued at £26k. This also seems to be reflected in the used car market. Anybody else have similar experiences. Why the greater than 50% depreciation? 

Thanks.   

Yeah, depreciation sucks - but it's not unique to EVs by any means.

I work on the basis that a car can be expected to retain approximately 50% of its original value after 3 years. That equates to a loss of around 20% per annum - a retained value of 80% after year 1, 80% of that 80% = 64% after year 2, and 80% of that 64% = 52% after year 3. Some marques (e.g. French, Italian) depreciate faster; some marques (German, Japanese) depreciate more slowly; and the total mileage has an impact but as a rule of thumb it works to set expectations.

How are you buying your car?

Mine is on a PCP 'deal'. The first thing to note about PCP is that it guarantees that 'owner' pays the full cost of depreciation over the PCP period. The second is that it provides a good estimate of the retained value at the end of the PCP contract - the Guaranteed Future Value. The GFV is Toyota [Finance] estimate of the 'worst case' trade-in value of the car at the end of the deal. 'Worst case' because you can just hand the car back and walk away so all Toyota have is the used car as settlement. If they've got it wrong and the car is worth less than the GFV that's exactly what I'll do - but I hope to buy the car at the end and run it for a while longer before trading in for something newer.

We can work out the forecast depreciation rate by getting a PCP 'quote' online. For my bZ4X it runs at 28% per annum leaving an equivalent retain value of 37% after 3 years. That's not so great but at least I am well aware of my specific worst-case outcome.

For comparison, the PCP forecast on my RAV4 was a depreciation rate of 32% per annum leaving a retained value of 31% after 3 years. Of course, that is not what happen because I paid the GFV and subsequently traded the car in for the bZ4X. The actual depreciation was then only 12% per annum leaving an equivalent retained value of 68% after 3 years.

I'll be delighted if my bZ4X transaction works out so well but I'm not holding my breath! 😉

Cars sold after one year only will be either distressed sales or disposal of fashion accessories so not that useful as an indication of through life depreciation rates ...

[TonyHSD]

We had been discussing here about all these situations and circumstances and why is that. Perhaps the op has never come across. 
I can speak more but will definitely make some enemies and no friends so I will leave it here. The only thing I want to say is that the best Toyota car currently to buy new is Toyota Aygo X and the worst is bz4x. You can understand me why I came to this conclusion by looking at auto trader car prices, new vs used. 

[philip42h]

17 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

the best Toyota car currently to buy new is Toyota Aygo X and the worst is bz4x

Quite the reverse - the best Toyota car currently to buy new is bZ4X and the worst is the Aygo X ... but you and I are using wholly different assessment criteria! 😉 

[Gray86]

On 11/11/2024 at 1:42 PM, FROSTYBALLS said:

A colleague of my wife who had a 72 reg Tesla on an NHS lease, recently had the battery pack fail.  Replacement cost £18,000. Car, effectively scrap, handed back to the lease company. Wouldn't have another Tesla.

That will still be under warranty, and Battery will be replaced. Tesla are replacing Battery on cars nearly at the end of warranty (so near 8 years old). How did you know it was Scrap? 
 

it’s not a common thing - something like 0.1% of EVs have Battery failure at a young age. 
There are companies about (like Cleevley EV) that can drop a battery pack & replace the broken module (as it’s usually just one module that has failed - not the whole pack) and refit. Often less than £2000 for this repair. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

20 minutes ago, Gray86 said:

How did you know it was Scrap? 

That's what the lease company has said. The Tesla was replaced with a 74 reg Audi Q4 e-Tron, which I've seen.

[TonyHSD]

These are a huge burden and very inconvenient situations. Companies like the one example will pop up more and more but unfortunately it is way too expensive to do these repairs. Diy is almost impossible due to the size and weight of these batteries, warranty can be easily rejected if a water been entered inside, the list goes on. Plus the electric cars lose range with every year going old on top of the fact that they can half it’s range in colder weather. 
I am not saying that bevS are totally useless but definitely at the moment they are failing all around the world at high rates and very likely a Battery gate event is coming soon. The batteries can not be recycled fully and they leave a horribly toxic mass , something that is changing the world landscape. Just not been publicly announced yet. 
Nothing personal here or against evs and their owners. We also have an ev at the household but the truth needs to be said. 

[Mister Mike]

12 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

These are a huge burden and very inconvenient situations. Companies like the one example will pop up more and more but unfortunately it is way too expensive to do these repairs. Diy is almost impossible due to the size and weight of these batteries, warranty can be easily rejected if a water been entered inside, the list goes on. Plus the electric cars lose range with every year going old on top of the fact that they can half it’s range in colder weather. 
I am not saying that bevS are totally useless but definitely at the moment they are failing all around the world at high rates and very likely a battery gate event is coming soon. The batteries can not be recycled fully and they leave a horribly toxic mass , something that is changing the world landscape. Just not been publicly announced yet. 
Nothing personal here or against evs and their owners. We also have an ev at the household but the truth needs to be said. 

Very few EVs experience Battery failures. Thank goodness DIY on batteries is almost impossible. I’ve had my BZ4X for 2 years and there is negligible loss of range. It still does 305 miles in summer and 265 in winter, which is more than I need for a weekly charge.

Battery recycling and/or repurposing is going to be very big business.