(Yicai Global) March 23 — Secondhand car dealers in China have been taking advantage of recent price hikes in the new energy vehicle market by charging higher prices for cars ordered before the markups, especially Tesla models.
Xu Jin, who works in the used car market in Shandong, told Yicai Global that finding a car ordered before a price markup can bring in an extra CNY1,000 to CNY2,000 (USD157 to USD314).
Some Tesla cars on secondhand trading platforms have an additional charge of CNY3,000 to CNY20,000 (USD471 to USD3,140), Yicai Global found, but dealers generally offer them as ‘brand new’ vehicles with prices that are slightly lower than Tesla’s latest pricing.
US electric car giant Tesla has raised prices several times since last year due to the spring cost of commodities and vehicle battery materials, as well as lower Chinese government subsidies for NEVs.
Tesla began hiking prices last July. It also hiked them three times from March 10 to March 17 this year, with the rear-wheel-drive version of the Model Y going up by CNY36,200 (USD5,680).
As a result, some Tesla buyers decided to abandon their orders and then earn some money by transferring the orders to secondhand car dealers. Tesla tries to prevent orders being switched to people excluding immediate family members, but there are ways to transfer ownership that get around this.
Some cars are offered by scalpers who placed advance orders because they anticipated a rise in prices. They charge a premium, but the price is still lower than the latest offers from the car manufacturers.
In addition to Tesla, cars made by domestic NEV firms such as Xpeng Motors and Nezha Automobile have been involved in order trading.
Editor: Tom Litting
Source: https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/used-car-dealers-exploit-china-nev-price-markups