One case speaks for the whole world
The impetus for the story was published by Wired magazine (which has an office in San Francisco), which will be described in part below (and which has already been reprinted by many of the worldʼs leading publications — Forbes, CNBC, Fortune, Digg, EHN.org, EV World, CarBuzz, CarExpert, as well as considerable discussions on Reddit and X ) became just one Tesla crossover, which, after getting into an accident in Canada, after some time "came to life" in the mobile application of the previous owner.
The car, which was declared destroyed by local insurers (the so-called "total") and was not subject to restoration, appeared in Ukraine, in a completely working condition, and looked even somewhat more interesting than while it was in the hands of the previous owner — at least thatʼs what he said about his former car, Max himself, the owner of a Tesla Model Y from Vancouver, who got into an accident with this electric car.
At the same time, according to the same Canadian, who himself works as a car mechanic, the car left the road at high speed, hit concrete barriers several times, was damaged on all sides, the wheels were torn, and the car began to leak coolant. And the fact that the car "came to life" and appeared on the maps somewhere near Uman only made Max happy — because he did not believe that after such damage his car would ever come back to life.
Why are the "totals" increasing?
Of course, it is not about one single story — there are thousands of them. Moreover, there are quite a few where the cars had really minor damage, but the insurance commissioners issue them with certificates of complete destruction. An excerpt from an article on Wired (which we canʼt publish in full because itʼs only available by subscription) says that American insurers themselves believe that they too often write off perfectly recoverable cars, especially electric cars. The reasons for this are the lack of mechanics who know exactly electric cars and the legal nuances of working with traction batteries, as a result of which, fearing liability for a restored car with a potentially dangerous battery, car repair shops do not want to undertake their repair, even if it is quite simple.
Since such factors do not deter auto mechanics from Ukraine, they willingly undertake the restoration of most auctioned electric cars from American countries. Although due to the war and the blockade of Ukrainian seaports by the occupiers, the cost of delivering cars from overseas has become more expensive.
Are all "Teslas" "batteries"?
At the request of Wired magazine, the Auto Market Research Institute provided some statistics and some information about our car market in general, which were used in the article about "Tesla", which "came to life", but we decided to expand this picture a little already in our own electronic columns, adding some data about the origin of electric cars. Letʼs start with the Tesla brand, which has been the talk of the town so far. Over the past incomplete 3 years (2021, 2022 and 10 months of 2023), the Ukrainian fleet was replenished with these electric vehicles in the following proportion:
- 2.5% — produced in Europe
- 5% are produced in China
- 92.5% are produced in the USA
In total, during the mentioned period, 9,355 first registrations of electric cars of the Tesla brand took place, more than 90% of which were American. Not all of them were auction goods: a certain part of them arrived in new condition, or used, but without damage (most often — rare special versions with extended equipment or maximum power). Experts of the Institute of Car Market Research checked the number of newly arrived cars from American countries recorded in the archives of auctions there, and found 96.7%. That is, only 3.3% of cars arrived without damage.
The Ukrainian fleet of electric cars is not only Tesla
However, you should not rush to label all electric cars as "beatniks" — letʼs prove it with the example of the Nissan Leaf, the most popular model in Ukraine. During the same period, for which we received statistical indicators in the previous section for all Tesla models, the Ukrainian car fleet was replenished by 8,623 units. Nissan Leaf, which were produced in:
- 46.2% — Great Britain (European versions)
- 38.9% — USA
- 14.9% — Japan
At the same time, the share of those who came from America, and for whom it was possible to obtain archival records of auctions, amounted to 63%. If we determine the total share of "Leafs", about which there is data regarding participation in road accidents or sales through an insurance auction, the total share of such is 29%.
Entrance to "premium" for half price
These studies allow us to come to the following conclusion — there are many people willing to own Tesla cars, which actually belong to the premium segment and have corresponding (high) prices, and this desire leads to the fact that this part of owners is ready to accept that the car will be restored after receiving some damage, but will become much more affordable.
On the other hand, in the budget segment, where the Nissan Leaf can be classified, especially when it comes to the group of electric cars, the share of "auction" cars is much smaller — therefore, buyers of such cars are more likely to get a car without negative records in its history.
Not only "Tesla", not only with mileage
Another example is the Volkswagen ID.4, crossovers that mostly come to Ukraine from China in new condition. That is, 2,961 units arrived completely new, and in the same period as for the two previous examples. Only 97 pcs. of them were produced in Germany, and about 20 of them there are records of participation in road accidents, although some of them took place already in Ukraine, after the first registration.
If we talk not only about electric cars, but about the Ukrainian car market in general, including cars imported from all countries and previously sold new by local dealers, such as have data on participation in road accidents (or receiving similar damage — as a result of shelling, floods, etc. ) about 19%.
First place at auctions with buyers from the USA
According to information from the analytical agency Autoastat, at the beginning of November, the most active buyers of damaged cars from auctions were residents of the United States, during the period indicated in the diagram, they purchased almost 50 thousand vehicles. Ukrainian buyers make it to the top ten, but with a result 40 times lower.
There are "battles", but the Ukrainian market and the park do not consist only of them
So when you look at the question more broadly, and support it with statistical data, it becomes clear that Ukraine is not the world center of "reincarnation" of auction cars, although readers of the Wired publication (and other resources that quote the mentioned magazine, especially fragmentarily) may have a similar false impression ), if they do not have complete information, and consider everything exclusively within the framework of describing the flow of "total" electric cars of the same brand.
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