Electronic Vehicles

EV Future – Continued from page 3

The challenge is how to make the buyer comfortable in making a good decision to purchase that car, he said.

Pierog said people want an EV to be like an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car, but they are two different things.

This will force an auction and remarketer to be two different things –an EV and an ICE remarketer at the same time, she said.

Pierog called it “uncharted territory.”

Stewart asked if any specific segments of EVs are growing faster than another.

Mathiowetz, who serves on the consignor group of the EV committee, said it’s all growing at a “snail’s pace.”

For everyone else, it’s unpredictable.

Stewart asked Louisos, the logistics member of the panel, how dif- ferent it is to transport an electric vehicle from a regular car.

Having drivers transport cars that could catch fire is a major concern, Louisos said, even though ICE vehicles have fuel tanks that could also catch fire and transporters have been able to deal with them.

But there’s another concern.

“The most common type of transportation damage is undercarriage damage,” Louisos said, “and the undercarriage of this vehicle is the battery; I don’t know what that’s going to do with the integrity of the battery.”

The next issue involves the financial impact of transporting EVs.

“Weight’s the big one,” Louisos said. “It’s sort of the first one that comes to mind.”

If a truck has a full capacity of 80,000 pounds – and every vehicle is double the weight, what’s that going to do to a truck’s capacity?

Mathiowetz added that qualified techs will be a big problem.

“There’s no secret that there’s already a technician shortage,” he said. “So now you compound that with a completely new vehicle type.”

Pierog added another wrinkle to the discussion.

“If that car shows up at the auction and it’s a Tesla,” she said, it could be “connected to the previous owner on their app. If you can, then you charge it, but it’s going to charge the credit card of the previous owner.

“If you disconnect that vehicle from the previous owner, you may not be able to charge that car.”

Turner said the first part of the EV life cycle should not be a big problem from a repair perspective when it comes to off-lease, off-rental or out of fleet. Those vehicles will go to auction and it’s unlikely the necessary pre-sale repairs will be a big challenge.

“My biggest concern is when it comes to life cycle 2, life cycle 3 and life cycle 4 after it’s been bought by a dealer, sold by a dealer and brought back to auction,” Turner said. “There are going to be a lot more mechanical repairs needed on those vehicles.”

Stewart questioned when a significant volume of EVs will be coming to the wholesale market.

Pierog said it’s hard to predict.

“Two years ago, fleets thought they were going to have 100 EVs in their fleet. Now they have five,” Pierog said. “It didn’t pan out the way they expected.”

Stewart asked about how much charge to have on a battery in a wholesale/remarketing situation.

Pierog suggests the industry come up with some sort of benchmark, maybe 40%.

“It could depend on the battery size, it could depend on the vehicle.”

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