A man has taken to TikTok to voice his shock at how quickly electric vehicles have depreciated, after he had been hunting for a Mercedes EV. The value of electric cars has been a hot talking point for some time, as they do not appear to be holding their value.
Teddy (@houseofauto) recently posted a video on his TikTok account where he went through a few EVs to check out their value. The TikTok user had been browsing for a possible EV to buy, with his sights set on getting a Mercedes.
The upside of the price drops is that electric cars can cost a lot less for consumers on the second-hand market. When a car like an Audi E-Tron GT loses over 60 percent of its value over just four years, it does cause a shock, yet it makes it incredibly tempting.
Yet it also shows how messed up the EV market currently is. The buyers for the cars just aren’t there, with high prices and waning demand all contributing to the depreciation of the cars. But as Teddy showed us in his TikTok video, that depreciation is quite alarming.
How Quickly Have EV Prices Dropped?
@houseofauto Don’t buy an electric car unless you want to lose money! #cartalk #cartiktok #carsoftiktok #cars #CapCut ♬ Chopin Nocturne No. 2 Piano Mono – moshimo sound design
Teddy talked about a few EVs that have dropped in value over recent years. The first of those was a 2022 Audi E-Tron GT Premium Plus. This was an electric car with an MSRP of $102,400, so it was certainly not cheap. Now, though, he found one with just 43,000 miles on the odometer that was for sale at just $37,500.
That is a four-year-old car that has less than 45,000 miles on the clock, and that has lost a staggering 64 percent of its overall value. Mercedes-Benz, however, was the main focus of his video, and he checked out a 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE 350+ RWD, a car that is just two years old. This had a suggested MSRP of $77,900, and Teddy found the car with just 14,000 miles on the odometer.
So while you might expect a drop-off, you might not expect a massive one. However, the price Teddy found the car at was just $36,500. That is less than the four-year-old Audi, and this car had nearly 30,000 miles less on the clock as well. “This is borderline brand-new,” Teddy said in his video, and he wasn’t wrong. That is a nearly brand-new car for less than $40,000, and with an electric powertrain as well.
Gasoline-Powered Cars Have Much Better Value Retention
Teddy then looked at how gasoline cars are retaining their value, and it was a massive shock to the system for him. A 2024 Mercedes-Benz E 350 4MATIC with 28,000 miles on the clock was being sold at $49,000. Others can be seen for over $60,000 at various dealers, with the MSRP already at around the $63,000 mark. So gasoline-powered cars can clearly hold their value better than EVs.
A 2021 Audi R8 Quattro V10 Performance Spyder with all-wheel drive was priced at around quadruple the asking price of the E-Tron, showing how well they have held their value. There are several factors that have led to this EV depreciation problem. The loss of the federal tax incentive is one of those, as are the high MSRPs to begin with, and the hesitation of people to switch to electric power. All of that means that if you want a second-hand EV, you can get one for an amazing price.