- Sales of used electric cars have exploded in recent weeks in France.
- “We are on a very good wave,” rejoices Arnaud, a specialist dealer.
- This professional from Perpignan did not wait and wait to surf it, as he explains in this report from “Sept à Huit”.
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The electric car, the vehicle of tomorrow?
With the rise in fuel prices triggered by the war in Iran, motorists are turning massively to electric vehicles, and especially on the second-hand market, which has an advantage: a purchase price around 30% lower than that of new vehicles. Arnaud, a dealer from Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), has made it his specialty. He receives between ten and fifteen used electric cars per week. And most of them are already sold before even setting foot on the asphalt of your garage. “A few weeks ago, we had fifteen cars in stock. Now, today, I have almost no more cars in stock, because they are all sold. It’s working well, we’re very happy. It has to continue, we’re on a very good wave”,
he rejoices in the video visible at the top of this article, a replay of a report broadcast last weekend on the TF1 show “Sept à Huit” (also available in streaming on TF1+).
Over the past three months, its sales have more than doubled, from twenty to fifty cars sold per month. Jean-Philippe, his partner, only sells cars with thermal engines. So, between the two men, it’s a bit of a soup of grimaces. “I’m taking space from him little by little because he’s not selling”
jokes Arnaud. Jean-Philippe confirms, disappointed: “There, we are at a complete standstill. We had a catastrophic month of May.”
The two dealers, who share the same premises, note that in terms of sales, the relationships have been completely reversed.
At first, we had doubts. We had fears. We had fears.
At first, we had doubts. We had fears. We had fears.
Arnaud
“We are competing more and more. It’s becoming war”
says Jean-Philippe. “But he loses every time”
quips Arnaud ironically. “Right now, he’s beating me hands down.”
actually attests his sidekick, while showing an Audi A3 diesel “which sold like hot cakes last year”
. “We’re on a basic, simple model. We started at 19,990 euros. There, we lowered it about ten days ago to 18,990 euros. And it’s biting a bit, but nothing exceptional. It’s still there”,
he said.
The used electric market is booming, and many professionals are now riding the wave. But Arnaud did not wait for the surge in fuel prices, triggered by the war in Iran. Its dealership, launched a year ago, is one of the first in France 100% dedicated to electricity. The other side of the coin of his success is his family life, put in parentheses. “At the moment, he’s working more than expected. But over the last few months, it’s exploded. He’s on a tight schedule. On weekends, he can’t take off either. Afterwards, we know it and we deal with it. That’s the deal. We divide up the tasks, but I’m a little worried for him, anyway”,
underlines his wife.
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“That finally convinced me”: motorists explain why they give up thermal power for a used electric car
After twenty years of career in a large automobile group selling thermal power, Arnaud actually had an intuition: the coming explosion of the electric market. He then leaves his position as director and puts everything on his project, without any certainty. “To put it simply, we sold absolutely everything. Real estate, apartments, motorcycles. Everything that had financial value was put 100% into the company,”
he explains. “It was a radical change of life. We had a standard of living which was rather comfortable. And then, we forget about restaurants. At least, we reduce them drastically. We cut vacations”,
remembers the couple. Arnaud admits it today: “At the beginning, we had doubts. We had fears. We had fears. We even had stops. In March last year, when there was
the excesses of Elon Musk
for a month, we didn’t sell a car”
he emphasizes.
But three months ago, the day after the first bombings in Iran, Arnaud made a very risky decision on the advice of ChatGPT. “He told me:
‘when the fuel burns, the consumer asks himself the question he had put on hold: what if I finally went electric?’ It’s now or never, it’s going to explode. So I listened to ChatGPT. It was Sunday March 1st. So doubled our purchasing volume”,
he says. Arnaud then bought twice as many electric cars, now certain of selling everything. The intuition was good.
