What are wait times for new EVs?
New vehicles are facing long wait times, but what about EVs specifically, wonders Nile Bijoux.
With the change-up of the Clean Car Discount on April 1, more people are expected tomake the jump into EVs and lowemissions vehicles.
But, thanks to Covid, natural disasters, and the semiconductor shortage, wait times for vehicles is sitting at around three to six months, on average. Will the expected demand for EVs be able to be met?
Awhile back we looked at the wait times for new cars, but now we are looking specifically at EV, so asked a few of the distributors of the more popular EVs to see how long an order might take to be filled.
Hyundai said orders for new EVs would take between three and six months to fill. Stock is on the ground and arriving regularly each month, but in specification/colour combinations based on historical patterns and demand.
Newcomer Polestar said a Polestar 2 buyerwould be looking at six weeks to six months, depending on the model variant and specifications.
The longestwait is for the Standard range Single motor variant. Apparently, the lead time is down to demand, not supply constraints.
MG, which is about to release the refreshed ZS EV, said supply of the outgoingmodel has been exhausted and the new one will arrive later this year. It remains to be seen how well demand will be met.
Tesla did not respond to queries but on its website a footnote under the Model 3 said the wait time was between six and nine months. A new Model X would get here between December this year and March next year, and the Model S did not have a time frame.
Used EVs present a different issue. Supply is slightly different, considering they’re generally imported by individual dealers or people rather than distributors, so constraints come from different areas.
Right now, supply of used models is decent, but demand is up, so it is a seller’s market.
Adding to this is the uncertainty after the big fire on the Felicity Ace cargo ship, which may or may not have been caused by EV batteries on board, but was certainly exacerbated by them. Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL, owner of the Felicity Ace) has confirmed it will not transport used EVs for the foreseeable future.
Atsushi Hara, a Japanese-based spokesman for MOL, said its new policy only applied to used fully-electric vehicles and not to hybrid vehicles, and clarified it had ‘‘nothing to dowith the incident on Felicity Ace’’.
It is unclear if the move fromMOL will result in other shipping companies following suit, considering there will also likely be increased insurance costs and safety measures when shipping used EVs, or if it will create amore competitive market with otherswanting to grab some of MOL’s clients.