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Apr 11, 2024
One of the biggest topics for fleets purchasing EVs is residual value. It can make or break your business case and is one of the biggest levers to improve your bottom line. But getting it right is no easy feat. Just ask Hertz - the rental car giant rolled back their electrification plans after taking a $245m hit on the residual values of their Teslas. The challenge with predicting residual values for EVs stems from the high level of unpredictability in long-term market conditions, the new variables of electric that go beyond mileage and the rapidly evolving technology.
Macro Forces at Play
Some factors impacting residual value are macro environmental forces outside the fleet's control, like second-hand sales prices driven by supply from the OEM, demand, the state of the economy, interest rates and more.
Further, some worry about rapid changes in emerging battery technology could make existing models obsolete faster than would have been the case with their diesel engines.
But Vehicle Condition is Key
While you can't control those macro forces, there are vehicle-specific factors well within your sphere of influence:
🔋 Battery Health - This can be huge, but it can also be negligible. Battery degradation depends on the OEM, how the vehicle is used, the operating temperature and the way it’s charged
🚘 Mileage - No surprise, higher mileage vehicles have lower residual values.
👷 Damage - Dings, dents and more serious maintenance issues can dent those residual values.
With EVs, neglecting fleet health delivers a dual hit to your bottom line - not only could it hurt your resale price but it also cuts productivity over the vehicle’s lifespan. Even fleets leasing their EVs need to manage performance to maintain productivity long-term.
Data is Your Friend
The good news? We have more data today than ever before to help predict and proactively manage residual value:
✅ Track market conditions to ensure you sell vehicles at the best time
✅ Promote habits that preserve battery health like using slow chargers
✅ Prevent overcharging of your vehicles unless necessary for your next route
✅ Monitor and incentivise good driving behaviour
✅ Cycle your EVs across drivers or routes to avoid mileage penalties or write-offs
How Guided Energy Can Help
At Guided Energy, our EV fleet operating system brings together data from across the EV ecosystem to increase your profitability by:
Tracking the health and performance of every vehicle in your fleet. With no hardware and in real-time.
Monitoring driver performance and coaching your drivers to get the most out of your EVs.
Forecasting residual values with powerful analytic tools that combine vehicle and market data to give you a single place to make decisions.
Optimising charging to minimise battery damage
Don't let unpredictable residual values put the brakes on your EV adoption. Improve your residual value management with data-driven insights from Guided Energy.
Ready to see how we can help maximize your EVs' residual values? Sign up for a free residual value analysis today!