I would be interested to hear your views on this article by Brian Gaynor, where he asks the following question:
“Vehicle sales are booming but are we buying cars that will be obsolete before the end of their working life?”
Brian’s answer to this question is that:
“The issue for New Zealand consumers is that the resale value of petrol-based vehicles could decline more rapidly than previously as electric vehicles become more popular and cheaper to operate.
Astute buyers, with a long-term perspective, will take this into account when purchasing a new vehicle or a second-hand import.”
But could the opposite situation also apply? Electric vehicles (EVs) are just in their infancy and new EVs (or near new) are quite a lot more expensive than their petrol-based equivalents.
Because EV technology is developing so fast, isn’t it possible that owners of relatively low-range EVs are also likely to experience a rapid drop in resale value as the range and price of newer EVs improves? Also, some higher priced older model EVs, such as the BMW i3, are taking quite a long time to sell and this factor needs to be taken into account when investing in electric vehicles!
The table of NZ vehicle sales in Brian's article is very interesting. It shows total vehicle registrations at 31 May 2017 of 4,090,313, an increase of 171,632 in just one year. And the previous year, registrations increased by 212,456.
Brian says these vehicle registration figures explain why our roads have become more and more congested. So, shouldn't the Government have some controls over the huge number of petrol based vehicles that are coming into the country and causing even more pollution?