Featured Elon Musk’s big lie about Tesla is finally exposed

Doesn't used car value turn a lot on accumulated mileage? We average only 9K miles per vehicle - even after a few cross country trips ... so if we'd kept our awd 2016 model S - it'd only have ~ 72K miles (or 24,000kWh's of juice used) right now. But it was back when supercharging was free (ie usage baked into the new purchase).
But even at 20¢/kWh for home charging - that would have only worked out to ~$4,800 on fuel over some 8yrs.
or .... $600 per yr .... 11½ bucks a week.
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Yes, but also year.

On Cars dot com there's a 2016 Model Year Tesla Model S 70D with 62,394 miles, clean, no-damage-ever CarFax report, for only $19,777 in VA.

I don't see any info if that includes the $4,000 federal tax credit or the $2,500 + $2,000 VA incentive into that price. Although if it were more than $25,000 before any incentives it wouldn't qualify for the VA incentives, so at most it might be $23,777 before incentives.

 

Even I wouldn’t touch an 8 year old ev

 

I think there are a lot of unknowns. When I had the Leaf there were a lot of people who speculated that we were just around the corner from being able to obtain cheap, high-quality battery upgrades. Well, that never seem to have come to fruition. Instead, the price of changing out the OEM battery (which is what most, if not all EV manufacturers do if the battery fails or loses too much capacity) went up from some $5,500 to some $8,500, and that was for the 24kWh battery.

It looks like prices have come down again for a dealer to swap out a battery. But like I said, right now it doesn't make much sense to get an older EV to work on DIY style. It's not like you can just go down to the local junk yard, grab a good battery from a wrecked Tesla Model S, and throw it in yourself. It's also not like you can just cheaply and easily rebuild one with all brand new parts and expect it to last as if it were brand new. It's not like you can just go get a JDM import battery from Japan and throw it in for a couple thousand dollars either.

Just googling "how much does it cost to replace a Tesla Model S battery" brings up "Estimates suggest that the batteries for the Model S cost between $12,000 and $15,000. After labor charges, the total repair cost is about $20,000 to $22,000." The great unknown is how long the original battery is going to last. Because if it does fail, then you just might have a repair bill that's more than the car is worth. Hopefully more and more people have great experiences in their Teslas and other EV's and we of the poorer class all get the confidence to buy cheaper, older, used ones.

 

Depends on what you want the car for. If it is just for local trips, a car that started with over 200 miles of range will still have a large amount of capacity at 8 years.

A right to repair law would open the battery data to give a better measure of what the battery health actually is. Should also tell you if the car saw a lot of fast DC charging.

There is an unknown at the 10 year mark. The Li-ion in most EVs have been following the capacity loss seen in the lab. There is a drop of up the 10% in the first couple of years. Then the capacity loss is essentially level for some time. Ten years out is when to expect more capacity loss. Don't think we have enough data from actual cars to accurately predict how much that will be. But 50% capacity on a 250 mile car is still 125 miles for daily use.

I wouldn't get an 8 year old BEV for long trips. For my commute, I'd could do it. I also would have a second car, and not be in a bind if the battery does truly crap out in a few years.

 

i'm not concerned with battery capacity, that can easily be tested in the real world. i'm more concerned with other problems, parts (new and salvage), repairs, service, electronics and etc.

 

I have a certain degree of concern for all of it. Like I've said before, depending on who you ask, EV's seem to be either so good they seem too good to be true or the worst thing ever. But I'd rather hear all of you EV owners state the pros and cons you've seen with your EV's personally, and let me know if you'd recommend one for someone like me.

Also, if I'm contemplating getting an EV as a second owner, one that I'm going to drive around used one with no warranty for the next 7 or 10 years or more, it would be nice to hear from others who have already done that and what their experience was like.