Random EV thoughts.....

Sorry to hear it Liam :-(

Nice way to keep earning money after they sold you the car....

I pay Tesla €120 a year for premium connectivity, but that's a service that they no doubt have to pay for themselves... this is purley Mercedes wanting to milk owners on an annual basis for performance!

I suspect where going to see a lot more subscription nonsense tried on from manufacturers in the future.

Pretty sure VW are going to go that way soon. There's a We Connect Plus subscription which is currently free, I could see that expiring after a couple of years

There's also talk of making things like Travel Assist and even mapping updates a subscription

I won't mind if it's the cheaper ID cars only, makes sense if it's a way to keep the upfront price down. I imagine it'll start creeping up to the higher priced models though

Hopefully it'll also be a 1 month subscription, so if you're travelling you can unlock travel assist and higher quality maps for the duration then cancel

Surely it would make more sense for high spec models which are more likely to be purchased by people with deeper pockets who are much more likely to cough up for the luxury add ons.

Btw, when I say VW there you can just sub in whatever other car manufacturer you want

VW have probably been more vocal in their ambitions (at least under Deiss, the new guy seems about as interesting as the T&C's letter from the bank) but you can bet all the other manufacturers are thinking the same thing

@liamog - €20 per month is fine of course, but Mercedes is charging €1200 per year, which is €100 per month. That's simply too much, I don't think many people will take the offer.

The EU need to kill, or at least heavily regulate, this subscription crap at birth. Any feature present in the car when you buy it should never be able to be removed.

If you want to add things after then sure, go for it. I’m sure the German marques will be lobbying heavily for a subscription model to cover what they won’t make in servicing and parts.

I suppose the chance to dodge some VRT would also be welcome, since in theory you can buy a low spec car with a lower market value and upgrade it after purchase

I think a lot of Model S owners were doing that a while ago with the performance mode unlock?

Cupra (and others) are forcing you into a host of other upgrades there just to get you the extra bhp though. Clever enough on their behalf but that's life.

You're fairly clued in on Evs and the whole industry @liamog what do you think a 222 plate Cupra Born will be worth in 2024.....with about 40k kms on it. I paid 41.5k for it, Aurora Blue metallic the only option.

Happy with it as my first foray into EV ownership but already have my beady eye on something new for 2024.

I assume a new Cupra Born will be the guts of 45 to 50k by then with grants removed. Or are grants just keeping the prices high artificially?

Unfortunately that's something of a roll of the dice question, at the moment depreciation of EVs is almost zero, but that won't last forever

In theory by 2024 supply should be much greater, and all the ID.3s and Borns sold in 2020-2021 will be coming off PCP and a fair number of them will be entering the 2nd hand market

So more "normal" depreciation should apply, probably around 30-40% of the cars original value

However, the demand for EVs doesn't seem to be going down and the prices for new ones is only going up for now

As you noted, the Born is more expensive now than when you bought it for essentially the same car. Even if it retains most if it's value it could be a good deal next to buying now

So I'm going to roll the dice and say between €30-32k will be the expected value in 2024

Let me know in a couple of years how I did 😁

In a car 2 months and I am already looking at selling!! Loads of factors I know, grants (probably gone), supply (unknown), demand (economy dependent), choice of cars and competitors and whether the manufacturers actually drop prices as R&D costs have been recovered

As much as I like it I do want to move back into bigger cars and have the A6 Etron (possibly Avant) firmly in my sights

I'm not getting anything!! Just thinking out loud.

If I was lucky enough to be able to pull off the A6 etron i think I'll be in them forever. No compromises there at all, looks like my dream car. Not a big fan of SUVs, my dad has original etron SUV and I'm meh about it, and as much as I like to look at the likes of Taycan and etron GT, buying them wouldn't be for me, bit too flash.

People used to buy cars with no radio, steel wheels and then get them put in later. It's nothing new.

The new regulations for emergency call buttons on cars mean all cars must have a built in phone with location ability so the internet connection is there in every car.

In terms of subscriptions the big losers will be those who buy 10 or 20 year old cars for peanuts but fund basic features like Android auto or apple car play disabled. Apparently apple and Android charge a once off fee to manufacturers but many now want an annual fee for it to work. Worse still some of these connectivity are included for free to first owner who probably has bundles of cash but pay to use for later owners including cash strapped 10 or 15 year old car owners. Some of these optional extras are safety features such as upgrades from basic lane keeping to more advanced versions which could be the difference between life and death. It's getting like "would you like good brakes or bad brakes, enter your credit card number". Some new cars have buttons to press but they pop up a subscription screen instead of turning on heated seats. Manufacturers are only doing this to make more money, and it's the 2nd, 3rd owners that really pay as most optional packs and upgrades at purchase normally don't impact the used car price that much. Thus in the past 5k of options might result in a 500 euro premium on the used car. Now the option costs the same at 5 years or 15 years of age, no depreciation in the subscription, probably inflation in the annual cost. If you bypass the software lock have you committed a crime, if so do you actually own the car you bought?

I bought a heated aftermarket seat cover for 20 euro. These may get more popular in time.