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   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://restofworld.org/2025/ev-depreciation-blusmart-collapse/   
      
   The resale value of electric vehicles is collapsing worldwide, hurting   
   private owners and fleet operators.   
      
   The crisis became especially apparent when BluSmart, India’s pioneering   
   all-electric ride-hailing service, collapsed in April amid financial fraud   
   allegations. The Delhi-based company’s fleet of thousands of cars,   
   originally worth over $12,000 each, suddenly flooded the market at about   
   $3,000.   
      
   For Tesla owners in the U.S., their 2023 Model Ys are worth 42% less than   
   what they paid two years ago, while a Ford F-150 truck bought the same   
   year depreciated just 20%. Older EV models depreciate even faster than   
   newer ones.   
      
   The crisis exposes the fundamental problem that nobody really knows what   
   electric cars are worth in the secondhand market, as their value is   
   largely tied to batteries with uncertain lifespans.   
      
   “For gas cars, there’s a 100-year process behind them based on odometer   
   and major maintenance schedules and the expected life of combustion engine   
   parts,” said Andrew Garberson, head of growth and research at Recurrent, a   
   Seattle-based startup that evaluates the wear and tear on used EVs to   
   bring transparency to the secondhand market. “Electric cars have fewer   
   moving parts, and a lot of the value of the car is tied up in one   
   component — the battery.”   
      
   https://restofworld.org/charts/?utm_medium=row-charts-link   
      
   A U.K.-based study found 3-year-old EVs lost more than half of their value   
   compared with 39% for gas cars. Another study conducted by Boucar Diouf,   
   an EV researcher and professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, found EVs   
   in the U.S. can lose as much as 60% of their value over three to five   
   years, compared with less than half for traditional vehicles.   
      
   For fleet owners and operators — across sectors from ride-hailing to   
   rentals to logistics — pledging to go green, this value disaster is   
   threatening to derail the sustainability movement.   
      
   Florida-based car rental company Hertz, which bought 100,000 Teslas in   
   2021, reported a $2.9 billion loss in 2024, driven largely by plummeting   
   EV value, according to its February 2025 earnings call.   
      
   The company was hemorrhaging more than $530 a car monthly by late 2024,   
   due to high upfront costs, steep insurance premiums, and long repair and   
   restoration lead times, according to EV news publication InsideEVs. Hertz   
   dumped 30,000 EVs — Teslas bought for more than $40,000 ended up on its   
   website for resale at prices under $20,000. As of October 8, it listed a   
   Model Y for $27,000. A new Model Y cost $45,000 in the U.S. until earlier   
   this month, when Tesla launched a more affordable version at just under   
   $40,000.   
      
   “Fleets feel EV residual risk the most because they model total cost of   
   ownership to the decimal and have to remarket thousands of units,” Jack   
   Carlson, CEO of Carvai.ai, an AI-powered vehicle research and shopping   
   platform, told Rest of World. “Retail buyers worry too, but mostly about   
   battery health and charging. Fleets worry about the exit price.”   
      
   Ironically, Tesla still represents the best-case scenario, holding on to   
   resale value better given its years of experience and brand-building.   
   Chinese newcomers like BYD, Nio, and XPeng tend to have lower resale value   
   in comparison, Mariusz Sawula, CEO of Poland-based autoDNA, a provider of   
   vehicle history reports, told Rest of World.   
      
   “Premium brands consistently retain higher resale value than mass-market   
   brands, for both ICE [internal combustion engine] vehicles and EVs. No one   
   knows what entirely new Chinese marques will cost in the secondary market   
   — for instance, what a 5-year-old Omoda will fetch,” Sawula said,   
   comparing the likes of Tesla to a sub-brand of Chinese carmaker Chery.   
      
   The depreciation crisis also varies by region. While Japanese and U.S.   
   consumers remain skeptical, more EV-friendly markets support strong resale   
   prices, according to Justin Fischer, an automotive expert at vehicle-   
   trading company CarEdge.   
      
   “In markets where consumers are open to the idea of going electric, like   
   China, Norway, and Costa Rica, resale values are supported by this higher   
   demand,” Fischer told Rest of World.   
      
   North America’s vast highways and sprawling distances create a tough   
   environment for used EVs, Karl Brauer, who has reviewed thousands of   
   vehicles since the mid-1990s, told Rest of World. Europe, with its denser   
   cities and shorter commutes, offers more stability in the used EV market   
   compared to the U.S. or Canada. Distance is just one of several   
   limitations, which also include climate sensitivity and charging downtime.   
      
   “While an electric vehicle is ideal for shorter trips in urban areas with   
   moderate temperatures, they aren’t as effective as traditional cars for   
   long-distance travel or when the temperature is very high or very low,”   
   Brauer said. “Even electric vehicles with larger batteries and longer   
   ranges still require more time to replenish their energy compared to   
   gasoline and hybrid vehicles.”   
      
   Consumer confidence is also buoyed by favourable policies and extensive   
   public fast-charging networks.   
      
   “Greater demand and a more secure supply side helps stabilize resale   
   values there, compared to what we see here in North America,” Johnny T.   
   Beckett, vice president of sales at Canadian multibrand electric car   
   dealer EVNet, told Rest of World.   
      
   Uber walked away from buying 5,000 used BluSmart vehicles, while local   
   rivals like Evara Cabs wouldn’t touch them because of battery and warranty   
   concerns. BluSmart’s fire-sales in the cities of New Delhi and Bengaluru   
   showed exactly how fast EVs can become worthless.   
      
   A family car drives modest distances yearly, but Indian fleet vehicles   
   rack up three to four times their mileage, destroying resale value faster,   
   according to Anirudh Damani, managing director at Artha Venture Fund,   
   which backs Uber partner Everest Fleet in India.   
      
   https://restofworld.org/charts/?utm_medium=row-charts-link   
      
   “For individual consumers, the resale value is an inconvenience; for fleet   
   operators, it’s an existential problem,” Damani told Rest of World. “Their   
   vehicles are financial assets, not lifestyle products. Without a   
   predictable residual value, even a profitable fleet can become unviable   
   once replacement cycles begin.”   
      
   Battery-as-a-service models are emerging as a potential lifeline as they   
   give fleet operators the predictable costs and stable values they   
   desperately need, offering a path forward where battery risk no longer   
   threatens entire business models, Damani said.   
      
   An April 2025 McKinsey report shows one in five Europeans and just one in   
   10 U.S. consumers are considering going electric. Fleet operators, though,   
      
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