The used car market for electric cars across national borders is growing rapidly
That: pa / SULUPRESS.DE / Torsten Sukrow
More and more electric cars bought in Germany are exported after just a few months. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the number has recently tripled. Used car dealers have discovered the e-car premium as a lucrative source of income.
DThe then Chancellor Angela Merkel and the bosses of the car companies had not foreseen this boom. When they raised the purchase premium for electric cars to 9,000 euros per car at the “Car Summit” in November 2019, the aim was to get more of these vehicles on the road in Germany.
In fact, sales increased. VW, Mercedes, BMW and Tesla benefited greatly. In the slipstream, exports of used e-cars abroad also grew. Although their values are small when compared to the 356,000 new e-registrations in 2021, the growth is just as impressive.
While only 3,399 used cars with electric motors were exported in 2019, the following year saw more than twice as many, at 6,898. In 2021, the number is likely to have almost tripled, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office, which is available to WELT AM SONNTAG. According to this, 16,505 used e-cars were exported from January to November, with an upward trend since the middle of the year.
The trigger for the boom is the different price level for used cars in Germany and other European countries, which has arisen as a result of the subsidies. E-cars from Germany sell well, especially in Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.
“In Denmark, for example, there is no luxury tax on registration for used electric vehicles with a mileage of more than 6000 kilometers. This creates high demand and high prices for young used electric vehicles,” writes Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management (CAM).
This has created a lucrative, legal business model for used car dealers. The best-known, Sascha Schmitz from Mönchengladbach, also advertises in TV reports that his customers “drive a Tesla for free”. If you sign a contract with him and order the Tesla yourself, Schmitz will buy the car from you after six months at the original price minus a premium.
Ministry wants to take countermeasures
The customer must apply for state money from the federal government. The six-month holding period is one of the few conditions for this. Then he can collect the bonus for the next car.
Robert Habeck’s Ministry of Economics (Greens) doesn’t like that. It is “not the point of the funding… that subsidized cars are regularly resold to other European countries after the minimum holding period has expired and that this becomes a business model for dealers and buyers,” says a spokeswoman.
Germany needs a used market for e-cars, especially for buyers with lower incomes. It is now being considered to extend the holding period to twelve months. Bratzel suggests two to three years – or funding for use instead of purchase, “for example free contingents for charging in the first three years”.
The car expert estimates that the export market is larger than the statistics indicate. He compared the new registrations of e-cars with the change in the number of vehicles. Result: In the previous year there were 29,260 electric cars missing. On this basis, Bratzel has extrapolated: 240 million euros in subsidies are likely to have flowed abroad with used electric cars.
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