It's a big risk buying an used ebike.
Yep, and that's
exactly why they depreciate faster and more deeply, than even used cars. Knock off 40% minimum, the day you drive it off the showroom floor. (the prospective used ebike buyer should or just walk away). Or once you drove it off your living room floor if you bought it on line. For on line models deduct 60%. The risks are too high, the batteries too costly, and the downsides so many, because it is so rare for anyone to sell their ebike in less than 3 years. The battery alone is often 40% of the ebike price, especially if its one that is under $2000. Thus its highly likely That seller, HAS a very valid (to them) (and its bad for you) reason for trying to pawn off their regret-filled mistake onto the next naive and willing sucker, especially if its less than 1 year old. People are not buying new ebikes , to think about turning around and selling them in a few short years.
So you will rarely ever see one of any decent quality for sale used, that likely doesn't have critical flaw issues. And if it is not flawed in some significant way, then the seller doesn't budge much off their near originally paid price point, and they'll often sit on the darn thing for months or even years. Check out a venue, like OfferUp, and you'll see some like Rad Power owners or even Trek owners (for example), trying to sell their Rover or Verves respectively, for less than $200 off the original price, and the original post date is often 12 months or longer. The other key reason for the depreciation is there are more than 140 brands being marketed into the US, and price points keep dropping to ridiculous lows for the on line only brands. That huge number of brands for a really still nascent and emerging technology here in the US, that has a slower ebike adoption rate than many other countries, who rely more on their bikes for transportation than we do, just makes for very ripe for deep depreciation conditions. Americans are usually quite risk averse on technologies they perceive to be 'new' , one way to knock down that risk, is to buy new where they at least get a 1 year warranty. No such thing exists with used. The odds are very low, you will save any money buying used, and it could end up very likely
costing you a lot more than new would have been. Seriously, I'd put the odds at greater than 60% that you are buying someone else's problems, when buying a used ebike. Go to Vegas for crissakes, and roll the dice to make up the difference to be able to afford a new ebike, if you don't think you have enough saved up to buy new right now. Your odds will be better, and you'll likely have more fun doing it.
www.the-ebikestore.co.uk
