Large used car dealers on the American market, such as Carmax or Carvana, reacted to the discounts on new Teslas more or less immediately and forced prices down by thousands of dollars. In doing so, they not only “farewelled” the margin, but lost money on hundreds of teslas sold. European sellers are almost not discounting and speculate that the situation will change, warns Jakub Šulta, founder and director of used car dealer Carvago.
After unexpected massive discounts, in some cases the price of a two- to three-year-old Model 3 with adequate mileage equaled the price of a new car, but the prices of used Teslas in European markets fell by only one percent.
“Unlike the overseas one, the European market did not react uniformly and the median price fell only slightly. As a result, sales of the mentioned models almost stopped when we compare the statistics for December and January. Let’s also take into account that January tends to have stronger sales than December, and the price drop of new cars only occurred in mid-January,” says Šulta.
The drop in sales can be seen in a number of European markets, most dramatically in the largest one in Germany. For example, only 380 Model 3s were sold there in January, while dealers sold 795 of these sedans in December. The 68 percent drop was not prevented even by the sellers’ average discount of more than three percent. A similar month-on-month development also occurred on the markets in France, the Netherlands, Austria and other European countries. In all European markets monitored by Carvago, sales of the Model 3 fell by 66 percent, Model Y by 46 percent, Model X by 59 percent and Model S by 63 percent in January.
“There are only two scenarios that can be recommended to customers who are currently planning to buy a Tesla. Either buy a new car or wait to see how second-hand dealers react,” adds Šulta. Czech customers tend to wait. While in December, according to Carvago, 29 out of 94 offered used models 3, S, X and Y were purchased in the country, in January only 16 out of 115 offered. The trend can also be seen in Slovakia, where in December 43 out of 113 offered used Teslas were sold, in January only 22 out of 133 offered.
Aures Holdings, operator of the largest chain of car dealerships AAA Auto, confirms that used Teslas are not disappearing from the offer. In January, the number of used Teslas on offer on the Czech market increased by roughly half to 110, the median price was 1.22 million crowns. Back in November, it was 210,000 higher. As previously revealed by Aures data, the median price of traded used Tesla cars in the Czech Republic was almost 1.5 million last July, and was already below 1.2 million in December. And this despite the fact that the cars sold in December were younger and had lower mileage. However, the discounts announced in January almost stopped the trade in used Teslas.
The change in Tesla’s pricing policy was very unexpected for the market. Previously, used Teslas not only retained their value, but buyers in many cases even sold them for higher than the purchase price. That’s over for now. Thus, on the one hand, Tesla attracted interested parties who hear about the lower price, on the other, it discouraged speculators and everyone who appreciated that used Teslas lost their price only very slowly.