Quote Originally Posted by Big H View Post
... - surely these cars will be almost unsellable after this warranty period expires - as you say, who is going to risk financial ruin on a used one with no warranty (no doubt the aftermarket warranty companies will have a heap of clauses regarding electric components/batteries - 'that's wear and tear sir'). BMW's own extended warranty will be horrendously priced no doubt too.
True – BMW were good for informal "goodwill" gestures (Nikasil, e46 subframe mount rips, etc.). They were goodwill, so, it could be hit and miss whether you'd get it, but if it had a dealer history many got something for cars that were long out of warranty (subframe/floor was done on our old 328i Touring at ~6 years old). Dealer history didn’t help with a charging port ECU issue on the 530e last year, I pushed for a goodwill gesture, but got a flat refusal and a €2.5k bill for the parts & labour. A pain, but could be rationalized in the context of a €25k+ car. Some years from now when the value is less, even the risk of a bill like that be the kiss of death for resale.

The solution to that will probably be risk transfer. Manufacturers really would like us all to move to a subscription model, like Netflix – one easy monthly payment, so they get a nice steady stream of income rather than a chunk of wedge every few years. That will give them a chance at extending that stream to second, and may third, users, but to do that they need to have more control of supply/demand of vehicles to keep those streams at profitable levels. If they have more exposure to the risk of catastrophic costs like battery failure, then you can be fairly sure they’ll find ways to design and build them (components and cars) to reduce the financial risk to them.

In the meantime, I expect to be buried in the 530e (at least until I next look at Auto Trader and get excited about something ). People are suddenly getting more conscious of the risk of big bills (even a theoretical risk) and now erring on the side of caution in terms of what they’ll pay for one. This time last year everyone was buying EV’s. Suddenly people are spooked, and everyone is running for cover. I heard a story recently of a woman who bought a current shape Leaf in 2019 and gently used it since that even Nissan wouldn’t offer her a trade-in price for against a new Leaf. Tesla and others didn’t want to know either. Its, effectively, worth nothing as a trade-in. It doesn’t take long for stories like that to scare the buyers, and cause climate conscious people to lose their ideals next time they change.

On the other hand, a half price boggo EV at 2-3 years old could be a good punt if you were prepared to take a calculated risk, and run it for the exceedingly long term, or until it fails, goes on fire, etc.