[TOP STORY] Rising fuel costs, EVs and the shift in second-hand car markets

Simon Brown (0:02)

MoneywebNOW, on the money.

This podcast is brought to you by Stanlip Asset Management. Invest in more certainty to navigate volatile market conditions. I'm chatting with Alan Quinn, Chief Innovation and Product Officer at cars.cozar. Alan, appreciate the time. We are getting 30 Rand petrol, we are getting 30 Rand diesel, both terrifying numbers, no halfway about it. Start it from yourselves, cars.cozar. People aren't buying less cars, they're just maybe looking for more fuel efficient cars.

Alan Quinn (0:32)

I think total cost of ownership is a conversation of 2026 that we never expected. And that's been driven by events in the Gulf and the price of fuel. It's traumatic visiting a petrol station these days, isn't it?

Simon Brown (0:45)

It absolutely is. Before we record, I mean, my wife got a diesel car. It's an absolute shocker to fill it. I mean, this is, I imagine, it's simple stuff like smaller engines. But are we also seeing some new energy alternatives, maybe hybrids coming in?

Alan Quinn (0:58)

It's interesting. New energy vehicles have been around for years. But cheaper models came in towards the back half of last year. The BYD Dolphin served the Gili E2. Now the Cherry Q is launching around the 3 to 400k price range. And that's an interesting price range because it's very affordable for size Africans. But the EV running cost is roughly about a third by fuel cost. I mean, it is about a third of a petrol equivalent of a small car.

And so it's become a conversation for certain people that we never would have expected before this year.

Simon Brown (1:32)

That's just it. I mean, it's the price that's coming down. And I've noticed, I've had a look at some of those BYDs. They really, really are cheap. They're also then cheap to run. They're also cheap to maintain. I mean, and I'm a complete novice here. I've still only got ICE vehicles. But I mean, service and the like is longer intervals and cheaper because there's no exploding parts in the engine.

Alan Quinn (1:51)

It really is because you've got an electric engine. By nature, they're just more reliable than ICE engines and less moving parts. The service intervals are much wider. And so you benefit on the fuel costs, if you want to call it fuel, and then you also benefit on the servicing costs. What you do have an unknown with is depreciation.

Because the depreciation cost is unknown. And when we look at our data, supply of EVs still exceeds real demand. So there's a lot of interest around EVs. And I think that's because it's a new technology and people are trying to get their heads around it, which is good, but ultimately it's not fulfilling into demand. And when supply exceeds demand, it can only read one thing. Your listeners will know economics better than me.

Simon Brown (2:35)

Yep, absolutely. And then hybrids. I mean, hybrids, because one of the worries is range anxiety. Although, I mean, apparently the N3 is now getting charging stations all over, that range anxiety is fading away. But I imagine a lot of it's perhaps more sort of emotional than actual practical. Hybrid kind of fits the spot. Does hybrid fit in terms of fuel efficiency and lower cost?

Alan Quinn (2:57)

It really does. I mean, hybrid technology, depending on the hybrids. So there's plug-in hybrids and then the traditional hybrids. Plug-in hybrid is a newer technology and it's the one that fills the gap. Most plug-in hybrids give you somewhere between 50 to 80 kilometers a day.

So you can do your daily on electric, which means that EV running cost is a Monday to Friday. And should you choose to go and visit your aunt in Nelsprit at the weekend, then you can go and do that and not worry about range. So it has the benefits of both. It doesn't have that beautiful service and efficiency that we spoke of earlier, but it's got that. And so I think plug-in hybrid is just a, it's a technology that will really take off as more models become available and people get their heads around it. Because if you use it in the way I described, then you're getting phenomenal fuel efficiency figures.

Simon Brown (3:48)

Yeah. And 50 to 80K's earners plenty. I mean, for some people, it's a week, for some people, it's a day, but you can charge overnight at home. How much of this has been driven, the sort of process coming down? My sense is this really is once again, Chinese cars at the forefront. Certainly the BYDs.

Alan Quinn (4:04)

Yes. BYD especially, it's a beautiful technology, beautiful cars. Chinese must understand that in Beijing and in China, EVs, it's not they're trying to take over the world using EV and so on. It's an imperative given the scale of their cities and the pollution of their cities. So Chinese invented, they invested in EV technologies and plug-in hybrid technologies because they had to. And you really see in the benefits coming out 10 years later, because they had to back then, remember the Beijing Olympics, they had to shut down the city so they didn't kill the athletes, right?