In recent months, Ken Harvey has been cultivating a budding side -business for his Honda and Mazda dealers in North California: the sale of used Teslas.
A few times a month, Mr. Harvey picks up a few second -hand Teslas on a local car auction and offers them for sale, often at surprisingly affordable prices, thanks to a federal tax credit of $ 4,000 that customers receive for buying used electric vehicles that are priced under $ 25,000. Some consumers who qualify for state stimuli, he said, end with used Model 3 -Sedance for slightly less than $ 20,000 – less than half of the costs of a new one.
“We have sold three in the past week, maybe 20 since the beginning of the year,” said Mr. Harvey, whose family four Honda dealers and two Mazda franchises in Alameda County owns, a suburb of San Francisco where Tesla has a car factory.
“We now have three in stock, and two are on the road,” he added. “They will not stay more than a few days.”
Welcome to the reverse of the recoil against Elon Musk, the Chief Executive of Tesla and one of the best confidants of President Trump – a thriving trade in used Teslas.
The Tesla activities used have grown for years before Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump came close, but their bonhomie has the turbocharger.
After the increase during the pandemic, the growth in the sale of new electric vehicles delayed in recent years. This ensured that Tesla, the leading seller of such cars, lowered the prices and pushed the value of models used down.
Then, after Mr. Musk had arrived at the Trump government, many Tesla owners throughout the country started selling their vehicles as a form of protest or simply because they no longer wanted to be associated with the company.
That movement has been accelerated in the last two months because Mr. Musk has taken the lead on what he and Mr Trump call the Ministry of Government efficiency. Although it is not a government department, this federal office was authorized by the President to dismiss government employees and dismantle agencies. Some explanations and actions by Mr. Musk-including a rigidly armed hand gesture that many people have interpreted Nazi greetings, made Tesla owners and others who once admired the automaker.
Dr. Jerome Winegarden from Ann Arbor, Mich., Said goodbye to his Tesla, a model 3. Although he had only driven it 35,000 miles, he exchanged it last month for a Ford F-150 Lightning Electric Pick-up. The car collected $ 18,000 as a trade -in, well below the original selling price of around $ 40,000.
“I was just more and more worried about Elon Musk and what he did, and the Nazi greetings was the turning point,” said Dr. Winegarden, 54. “The symbolism was just too much. I just felt shame driving the car.”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent weeks, protests have been relieved in Tesla showrooms, and in some cases Tesla vehicles, charging stations and buildings have been set on fire or destroyed. A group of Tesla Takedown has chatted Tesla owners to sell their cars and investors to sell Tesla shares. In the past month, the group organized dozens of protests in Tesla showrooms and other locations in the United States, Europe, Australia and Nieuw -Zeeland.
Abroad, the rejection of Mr. Musk's politics and his association with Mr. Trump had a strong impact on the Tesla company. Turnover in 25 European countries fell around 45 percent in the first two months of the year, according to Jato Dynamics, a market researcher.
While Auto analysts believe that Mr. Musk's political activities play a role in Tesla's sales trends in the United States, the exact impact is difficult to pin, partly because Tesla does not break through his American sale. European sales totals are easier to compile because registration data of new cars are released monthly by government agencies.
It is clear that the number of Teslas used for sale in the United States is increasing. Autotrader.com mentioned approximately 11,700 used Teslas for sale by dealers and private sellers at the end of March. That had risen from around 8,000 at the start of the year.
According to another car data provider, Edmunds, more Teslas are traded in to dealers. In March, Teslas from the 2017 model year or newer 1.4 percent of the vehicles that were introduced for new or used cars and trucks that were purchased from dealers – a year ago of 0.4 percent made an increase of 0.4 percent.
Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of Industry Insights at Cox Automotive, a company that owns Autotrader.com and the Car -auction Business Manheim, noted that Tesla's turnover increased considerably in 2020 after it could be the model Y. and that higher sale is now a reason that more used vehicles are sold and traded.
She said she believed that Mr. Musk's politics was damaging Tesla's brand, “but we don't have enough data to determine exactly what” the impact is.
Enzo Costa, Director of Sales for the Patrick Dealer Group, a family business with eight dealers in the Chicago region, said that many customers were trading in Teslas, including 10 last week.
In contrast to Mr. Harvey, the Californian dealer, Mr. Costa usually sends Teslas traded to wholesale auctions instead of selling them to individuals. This is mainly because the Tesla prices have been very volatile. In the past month, Mr. Costa said, he saw the value of used Teslas by 10 to 15 percent.
“The Tesla market changes so often that I am not going to take a risk,” he said. “I send them to the auction to get top value before they really start to fall.”
In California, Mr. Harvey said that the demand for affordable Teslas was solid despite the political efforts of Mr. Musk. The cars appeal to many customers who cannot afford new electric vehicles, but want to buy one to avoid the high gasoline prices of California.
“We see a lot of Rit-Share drivers and younger, first buyers who would usually not buy Tesla,” he said. “For the time being this has at least become a great opportunity for our dealers and the customer.”
Robert Chiarito And Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
