The release date of customers highly favored electric vehicles has been delayed by more than a year due to the imbalance in supply and demand from the shortage of vehicle semiconductors. Even if consumers sign a new contract on the remaining days of this year, they won’t be able to acquire the car in 2022, but in 2023. There are cases where the price of a used car overtakes the price of a new car or even gives up subsidies to purchase as shortage of the supply becomes more prevalent.
Based on the new contract on the 27th, it is uncertain whether the latest popular electric vehicles such as the Kia ‘EV6’ or the Genesis ‘GV60’ will be released in the upcoming year. Front-line branches are waiting 13 months for Kia EV6, 12 months for Genesis GV60, and 8 months for Ioniq5 from contract to shipment are required. The actual delivery date may change again depending on the status of subsidies by local governments. An official from the Kia branches said, “The EV6, which uses a lot of semiconductors, has been delayed for more than a year, so it is difficult to confirm when it will be shipped if you sign a contract now. We only received an official letter from the head office telling us to announce change in delivery schedule from time to time to avoid customer complaints.”
It was announced that the waiting period for popular imported electric vehicles is about a year. Tesla, which ranked fourth in imported car sales this year only with electric vehicles, temporarily suspended new contracts for major models such as ‘Model 3’ and ‘Model Y’ due to a shortage of semiconductors. The situation is similar for high-priced electric vehicles that are not included in subsidies. Porsche ‘Taycan’ etc. can be purchased after waiting for more than a year.
As the delay in shipments becomes a serious issue, the price of a used car are even exceeding that of a new car. The longer the delivery period lasts, the higher the used car price becomes. Used cars are not eligible for purchase subsidies, but the used market price of popular electric vehicles is 95-100% of the new car price. Some listings have overtaken new car prices.
According to SK Encar, a used car platform, the sale price of a popular 2021 electric vehicle with a mileage of less than 5,000 km has exceeded the price of a new car. The new Kia EV6 GT line, priced at KRW 60.49 million, was registered for sale at KRW 61 million. The market price of a 2021 EV6 long-range used car was between KRW 55 to 61 million. Used car sales were registered more than KRW 5 million higher than new cars for some car models such as the 2021 Tesla Model 3.
There are many cases in which customers forfeit purchase subsidies and purchase new cars in order to be shipped quickly. Min-young Kim, who shipped the Mercedes-Benz EV EQA this month, said, “The upper limit of the subsidy for the new year will be lowered by KRW 5 million, and even if we apply for it, there is no guarantee for the delivery date, so we decided to ship without subsidy. Electric vehicles are cheap to maintain, so we decided that it would be beneficial to run them quickly in the long run.”
By Staff Reporter Chi-yeon Jung (chiyeon@etnews.com)