Should you ever pay full price for an EV?

Not very long ago, buying an EV in Australia involved a fairly short shopping list.

Tesla was the obvious starting point. There were a handful of alternatives from established manufacturers. Prices were high. Choice wasn’t.

That has changed. Dramatically.

Today, Australian buyers can choose from an extraordinary collection of electric cars from China, Korea, Japan, Europe and America.

Small cars. Big cars. Sedans. SUVs. Utes. Family cars. Luxury cars. Performance cars. Cars from brands we’ve known forever and others most Australians couldn’t have named two years ago.

And more keep coming.

For a relatively small new-car market at the bottom of the world, Australia has become one of the most spoilt EV markets in the world for choice.

We should probably enjoy it.

Because there’s another side to all this choice.

Every one of those cars needs a buyer.

And suddenly a lot of manufacturers are chasing the same people.

The deals are getting serious

Spend a little time shopping for an EV and it doesn’t take long to notice something.

The advertised price is increasingly only the beginning of the conversation.

Cashback. Drive-away deals. Cheap finance. Free chargers. Trade-in bonuses. Factory incentives. Runout pricing. Extra equipment.

Sometimes several at once.

Which raises a fairly obvious question.

Should you ever pay full price for an EV?

Actually, yes.

Because while some manufacturers are throwing considerable money at getting cars onto Australian roads, others aren’t budging.

And neither necessarily tells you whether the car is any good.

The numbers game

A big discount doesn’t mean a car is any good.

It certainly doesn’t suggest it’s bad either.

That’s the point.

For some manufacturers, particularly newer brands trying to establish themselves here, the immediate objective may not be making the maximum amount of money from every car.

It may be getting cars on the road.

Market share matters. Volume matters. Visibility matters.

Every car sold is another car being seen. Another owner talking about it. Another unfamiliar badge becoming slightly more familiar.

For a new brand, that matters enormously.

Selling 10,000 cars at a little less margin might be considerably more valuable than selling 3,000 at full price.

That’s not necessarily desperation.

It can simply be the numbers game.

Sometimes there are just too many cars

Of course, sometimes a deal really is about stock.

Cars are expensive things to leave sitting around.

And EVs have another problem. The market is moving incredibly quickly.

A new model arrives with more range, faster charging and more equipment. Six months later something else turns up offering much the same thing for thousands less.

Technology changes. Specifications improve. Prices move.

Yesterday’s perfectly good EV can suddenly become today’s difficult piece of inventory.

That's when things can get interesting for buyers.

A manufacturer might offer thousands in cashback. A dealer might sharpen the drive-away price. Cheap finance might appear. An outgoing model might suddenly come loaded with equipment.

The car hasn’t necessarily become any worse.

It may simply have become much cheaper.

And therefore, perhaps, considerably better value.

Then there are the ones that don’t need to

At the other end of the market are cars people actually seem keen to get their hands on.

If demand is strong and supply is constrained, why discount?

Zeekr is an interesting example.

Its 7X arrived in one of the most competitive parts of the Australian EV market, surrounded by alternatives and with another unfamiliar Chinese badge to establish.

Yet if the cars are finding buyers without big incentives, there’s little reason to start throwing money at them.

That’s economics.

If you’re selling the cars you’re bringing in, knocking thousands off them doesn’t make much sense.

Which means paying full price doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done a bad deal either.

If a $60,000 car is genuinely good value at $60,000, it doesn’t suddenly become poor value because somebody else has put a $5,000 factory bonus on theirs.

Don't confuse price with product

This may be the most important part.

A discount is not a review.

It doesn’t tell you whether the car is good.

And it certainly doesn’t tell you it’s bad.

A manufacturer might discount an excellent car because it wants volume. Another might hold firm because demand is strong. One might be clearing old stock. Another might subsidise finance instead of cutting the sticker price. A newcomer might effectively be buying market share.

And occasionally, yes, somebody may simply have too many cars.

Don’t judge the car by the discount. Judge the discount by why it’s there.

So, should you ever pay full price?

Yes.

But know why you’re doing it.

Before buying any EV, check what the manufacturer is offering. Look beyond the headline price. See whether the model is about to be updated or replaced. Check available stock. Look at finance offers as well as cash discounts.

And find out what else the same money buys.

Because the explosion in EV choice has changed the balance of power.

The manufacturers are competing for you.

Use it.

But don’t buy a discount.

Buy the car.

$5,000 off the wrong car is still the wrong car.

And full price for the right one can still be a very good buy.