Photo: Tesla
New cars are harder to buy, with supply chain issues causing long delivery delays. This has encouraged people to resell their newly purchased vehicles for a hefty profit, sometimes as soon as they took delivery. France has a solution to prevent that, especially for people who bought their cars using state incentives.
The used car prices have soared in the past year, fueled by the scarcity of new vehicles in the market. In this context, people saw the opportunity to make a quick buck by selling their new car for a much higher price. It’s not unusual to see many used vehicles selling for prices way above their MSRP. Electric vehicles are particularly desirable because they are harder to get, and the demand is tremendous.
“Flippers” have made it more difficult for regular people to get a new vehicle at the MSRP. There were cases when people would buy an entire fleet of electric cars and put them back on the market at a higher price. Tesla got tired of this and took the extreme step of banning flippers from ever buying a Tesla again. Other carmakers have tried to curb the phenomenon with various degrees of success.
The French government has found a solution that could work everywhere. France has one of the most generous incentives for buying an electric vehicle. People abused the system and sold the EVs to other markets, where the prices were higher. You can see why the French government did not want to spend taxpayers’ money to make EVs more affordable to people in other countries.
A new rule has been imposed to prevent people from reselling their EVs for 12 months. The same law says that vehicles acquired using state incentives must drive a minimum of 6,000 km (3,728 miles). When either of these conditions is not met, the incentives must be reimbursed to the government.
Imagine that carmakers would impose similar rules for people buying cars to sell them for profit. Can’t resell them for a year and pay a huge fine if you do. Do you think it would work? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
“Flippers” have made it more difficult for regular people to get a new vehicle at the MSRP. There were cases when people would buy an entire fleet of electric cars and put them back on the market at a higher price. Tesla got tired of this and took the extreme step of banning flippers from ever buying a Tesla again. Other carmakers have tried to curb the phenomenon with various degrees of success.
The French government has found a solution that could work everywhere. France has one of the most generous incentives for buying an electric vehicle. People abused the system and sold the EVs to other markets, where the prices were higher. You can see why the French government did not want to spend taxpayers’ money to make EVs more affordable to people in other countries.
A new rule has been imposed to prevent people from reselling their EVs for 12 months. The same law says that vehicles acquired using state incentives must drive a minimum of 6,000 km (3,728 miles). When either of these conditions is not met, the incentives must be reimbursed to the government.
Imagine that carmakers would impose similar rules for people buying cars to sell them for profit. Can’t resell them for a year and pay a huge fine if you do. Do you think it would work? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Google News