Many of the cars are so new that they are still on the dealer's list. Yet they have ended up as waste at the scrapyard 'EV Breakers'.
A large batch of defective electric cars has recently been purchased by the English car scrapper EV Breakers. The purchase includes an entire trailer full of defective electric cars.
The cars include two Tesla Model Y, two Nissan Leaf, a Toyota bZ4X, a Nissan Ariya, an Opel Corsa and an Opel Mokka.
And although it may seem like money thrown straight out the window, according to the English, there is a meaning to the madness.
The cars must be disassembled to see which parts can be used to keep other electric cars running on the roads.
– Now it's time to see what we've bought, says an employee at EV Breakers.
The many electric cars look sad. At least there is much evidence that they have extensive damage. Still, the EV Breakers people hope that they have bought themselves a lot of good parts.
One of the challenges in the electric car market is access to spare parts. Many electric car models are relatively new, which can make it difficult for owners to find spare parts. That is, unless they want to pay huge sums of money.
But the problem doesn't just affect the technology in electric cars. Recently, an insurance company reported that they had been asked to pay 600,000 kroner for something as simple as a back seat. Read more about it here.
And this is where EV Breakers believes that buy-ins like theirs make sense.
The employees at EV Breakers use a forklift to remove the electric cars from the trailer. The cars are then washed and photographed for documentation.
– We want to keep as many parts as possible to keep other cars on the roads, explains one of the employees.
There is an expectation that certain spare parts will be more widely available than others. For example, the Nissan Leaf and Opel Corsa are two electric car models where spare parts are generally more readily available.
On the other hand, the English expect that they will be able to get more for the parts for a Nissan Ariya, since the model is less common.
– Many of the cars are new, and therefore there is an extra need for the parts, says an employee at the scrapyard.
However, how much of the cars can be recycled as spare parts in other cars is still an open question.
