… I would advise selling/trading it before the general public becomes aware that it is now an orphaned vehicle. Once that undesirable status becomes widely-known, the perceived value of these cars is sure to drop like a rock.
When I pass their showroom at Short Hills Mall, I have never seen even one customer browsing the selections, but by comparison the nearby Lucid showroom is always busy. So, I looked-up Polestar’s sales figures, and it turns-out that they sold fewer than 6,000 vehicles in the US last year.
I agree, that IS a valid question. I’ll pose another one; What if Polestar’s built-in-the-US cars were re-badged as Volvos? Would that bypass the problem?
Their resale or trade-in values are already pretty poor. Roughly $25K for a 3 year old, 30K mile example that sold for $55K.
The Chinese are investing in Canada, full throttle. The Canadians welcome them. It is a gateway to the US. I think worrying about investment is the wrong worry.
IMO Polestar is going away because they only build EVs and the company is young. Volvo has been around for a lot longer and has a dealer/repair network.
Also, I think EV depreciation is largely dictated by the actual price people paid for their EV. That $7500 tax credit from the Feds and any tax credits that may have been available from states made depreciation seem a lot larger than it actually is.
I think it is simple supply and demand. Low demand for those EVs coming off lease.
Polestar is owned by Geely just like Volvo is. Both are separate companies owned primarily by Geely. I think Polestar was created as a separate business so it could attract investors, provide R&D write-offs and be bankrupted without hurting Volvo or Geeley if the EV market tanks,
Used EV’s have always been a low demand vehicle because people think the battery will need replacing and don’t want the expense. Chances are the battery is still good for several more years and you don’t have to replace the whole battery. You can replace individual cells for a fraction of the cost.
Latest article I saw indicated EV batterie life is 200k+ miles, as long as slow-medium rate charging to 80% or so of max is used most of the time. High rate charging degrades battery life.
I don’t know about other vehicles (both EV and PHEV), but Toyota/Lexus PHEVs stop charging at 80%, even though their data system states that they are at 100% charge. And, at the low-end, their PHEVs default to the gas engine when battery charge goes down to 20% (the data system will state that it is down to 0%). All in the interest of prolonging battery life.
When the Tesla S first came out I was surprised that Tesla left it up to owners whether they wanted to charge to 100% or not. I was used to hybrids that controlled charging with no owner input.
