The Kia EV6 has quickly become one of Australia’s most in-demand cars – but Kia has become a victim of its own success, with some buyers now ‘flipping’ their cars for a huge profit and making it harder for real customers to get behind the wheel.
Pricing for the lithe electric vehicle officially starts at $67,990 but would-be entrepreneurs are capitalising on the insane demand for the car (and new EVs in general) by flipping EV6s for insane premiums over their MSRP.
DMARGE browsed Carsales for EV6 listings and found that the cheapest listing as of publishing – a Moonscape Grey GT-Line RWD single-motor model in Sydney with just under 2,500kms on the clock – was asking $99,900. That’s about a 33% premium over MSRP. Multiple listings can be found for the same price on Gumtree, too.
Other listings were climbing into the six figures, especially for top-spec GT-Line AWD dual-motor vehicles. It’s a frustrating problem for the South Korean car manufacturer, as well as real customers, who are finding themselves missing out in the queue or price-gouged by flippers.
“The major problem that we’re facing at the moment is the flipping… That seems to be a far bigger issue in the market than dealer delivery,” Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith told The Driven.
“We’ve heard stories of people buying a car – on the East Coast, the Sydney Metro – and they’re turning up in Western Australia, with a premium of $8,000 to $10,000 on them.”
Damien Meredith
Our research suggests that profiteering is even worse than that.
This is the same sort of aggressive speculative buying that you typically see with luxury goods, like AAA Canada Rolex replica watches. Popular stainless steel Swiss movements Rolex fake watches like the Daytona, Submariner ‘No Date’ or GMT-Master ‘Pepsi’ are so in-demand that waiting lists at dealers are literally years-long… And prices on the aftermarket are sometimes 150% or even 200% over retail.
Speculation on 1:1 perfect replica Rolex watches has only got worse over COVID and the ensuing global economic slump. Makes sense: people are just trying to make a quick buck and these sorts of things always get worse when the economy is in a bad place.
But (as hard as it is for me personally to admit) you can live without high quality Rolex copy watches. Aussies can’t live without a car – and while the EV6 is by no means the only new car on the market, Australia desperately needs to transition to electric motoring to help combat rising emissions levels, so people playing silly buggers with new EVs like this is hugely detrimental.
Fingers crossed that as COVID-induced supply chain issues finally work themselves out – and that both state and federal governments in Australia make buying EVs easier, therefore making it easier for brands to justify bringing more EVs Down Under – we’ll see less flipping happen.