With ICE cars? OK, perhaps. With BEV cars? No, no, no. Also, no.
You can buy an insanely great BEV for 40% of retail after it's gone off lease after 2-3 years. Everyone is concerned about battery life, but it'll have years to go.
I'm not going to be interviewed for the segment, but I have personally bought a like-new, just-off-lease BEV for a fraction of the retail price of the car and it is really very good.
EV depreciation is non linear. You lose a lot of the value in the first year because new EVs get better in ways that ICE cars long stopped improving. They get better ranges, faster charging, better battery longevity, more efficiency, etc. For some older models, you can get nice discounts on them new because of this or there are attractive incentives that somewhat moderate the impact of this effect.
After the first year, they tend to depreciate at a slower pace than ICE cars for the simple reason that there's not much that can go wrong with them and they are covered under rather long warranties. Most second hand EVs out there produced after 2017 are still under their original drive train warranty (typically eight years or 100K miles, whichever comes first). 2017 was when the Model 3 entered the market. Most popular second hand EV models are much newer than that. Unless they've driven more than 100K miles, they'd typically still have all the expensive bits under warranty.
Whether it makes sense to buy them new depends on what you are buying and where and why. Most private owners would be well advised to look for newish second hand models that are maybe 1-3 years old. The US is in a bit of a market bubble; EVs are very expensive there. And it's not seeing the same price competition. Elsewhere, EU, Asia, Australia, etc. you have a lot of low cost models undercutting their ICE equivalents for ridiculously low prices. Think 15K for low end models. Less in China. And even those will depreciate. But even those cars still see rapid improvements year on year.
As the owner of a 2012 BEV (still going), I do not believe that BEVs are getting substantially better year over year. Are they getting better? Of course! Within a period of a few years? Yeah, no, that's not actually a thing.
That's an interesting take. I know you said you're not looking to be interviewed, but could you tell me how recently you bought the BEV? Also, at a fraction of the retail price after 2 to 3 years; couldn't have been a Tesla. Was it a Tesla?
The early Leafs always had a fairly standard (for the time) Li-ion battery, but the corner they cut until a few years ago was to make it air-cooled rather than the liquid-cooled systems of most competitors. That made the earlier Leafs cheaper, but the batteries had far greater issues with longevity.
It's going to be interesting to see the LiFePO4 generation of EVs, which are going to be far less exciting to drive, but could potentially be rather cheap.
I knew something about it differed, I wasn't sure what it was. If they kept their cooling model, a lot of prior buyers may say "nah, that was a bad choice last time"
Although TBH I think the main thing about leaf was the range was dire. It suited people with zero range anxiety doing city runabout, and almost nothing else according to the rumour machine. (rumours are bad, but often grounded in some underlying issue)
Sure, postal banking [0] has been around forever. Could it be updated to the modern day and in the US? Of course! Why not? Because we apparently just can't have nice things.
It's a perfectly good idea that just doesn't have political traction in this era.
We could also have, you know, universal health care. Like any other normal country.
I own 3 EVs. Two of those, from 2012 and 2014, were built with 3G modems, and fully lost connectivity in 2022 when the 3G networks were turned down. Nothing changed, not even an error message inside the car, except that trying to connect to them with their apps now fails. They're still totally functional cars. The failure mode on both appears to have been "guess I don't have service, I'll sleep the modem." Bluetooth still works, but even if that failed one of them has a functional CD player!
My newer EV that came with LTE connectivity will also fully work without network connectivity, except for the apps and remote updates. You can turn off the built-in cell connectivity via the head unit menus, and if you're especially paranoid, you can pull the fuse on the modem (and I've done it!). When it doesn't have a network connection it too operates just like a normal car.
There's a lot of fear around EVs being "software on wheels" based on a few manufacturers making non-remote features that depend on remote connectivity and botching updates or requiring subscriptions, and I agree that all is super problematic both from a privacy perspective and point-of-failure reason. But there's absolutely nothing intrinsic to the core design of EVs that demands that they're connected to the network.
Most meats are now more expensive there - in bulk! - than at the local grocery, of similar quality. It used to be you could buy at Costco without price shopping and assume you'd get a premium product at a low price. Now I can get a better deal at the local supermarkets, or Sam's Club, which now beats Costco on price in my market every time.
Speaking of Sam's Club, the combination of their curbside pickup and "scan and go" make every visit a breeze. Costco has the most chaotic parking lot, crossed with the most chaotic checkout lines in the industry. It used to be that you could wave away the inconveniences of shopping at Costco because, as above, they used to have premium products at good prices. Now that those are largely gone, going just doesn't make sense at all.
I drive electric, so I have no use for their gas.
Their tires are no longer competitive with Tirerack.
Their toilet paper used to be great and now is kind of bad. Same with the paper towels.
Costco in my state does not carry liquor.
They've become a premium-priced brand without improving their products or experience, and the value isn't there for a membership any more. My local supermarket is generally known for being a fair employer, so Costco doesn't even have that going for them. I'm surprised given former positive feelings how much I've resented going there the last several times.
I've asked this before, but as the owner of a 2012 BEV that has a good battery but is in not-so-good (ie, fair) condition, how can I maximize the resale value of the battery in my car?
The battery is almost certainly worth far more than the car at this point.
Yes, I know that the battery will be scavenged at the junkyard. I'd love to get some of that.
You may not have a chance. If you did, it would be:
1. Identify the manufacturer stock number for the battery (part number)
2. Investigate the market for said part (may require professional connections)
3. "Salt" your sales offers with the battery part number and condition.
Over/Under goal is a refurbisher or similar middleman buying it just for the battery. Good luck, let us know how it goes
I hear you, but our car literally has more value as a "garbage car" even after insurance than actual resale value despite the rather valuable battery in its innards.
The Mac keyboard and trackpad do not have external connectors. A hardware solution would require opening the MacBook and wiring ports and a switch from those devices. There is not a plug and play solution.
Thanks for the pointers. The two devices are in 2 distinct security perimeters. So I was hoping to avoid software that link the two. I don't know if malware could use these software to propagate from one of the device to the other.
I assume you have a little software on the controlling computer that sends keystrokes over the network, they are received by this device, and sent via usb to the controller computer, simulating a usb keyboard?
Do you have experience with it? How is the latency? Does it work with the macbook trackpad?
I have used IP KVMs to manage remote machines over the years, yes. They are what you described.
The latency is adequate but not on par with a physical keyboard, and latency will depend on network performance.
IP KVMs can and do work with the MacBook trackpad, but as above, performance is not what you would expect from a wired, real-time connection, and you should not expect multi-finger gestures to work unless explicitly advertised.
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