Discussion keeps the word.
Hello, welcome to Roundtable where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that sizzle in China and beyond.
I'm Niu Helin.
There's a fascinating consumer revolution unfolding in China.
The symbol of financial intelligence among young people is no longer a luxury brand or the latest tech gadget.
Instead, it's the quiet hum of a pre-owned EV.
Today we look at what happens when a generation raised on digital literacy applies the same logic to mobility decode the system, spot the bargains and perfect the cost-performance ratio.
For this episode, I'm joined by Fei-Fei and Steve Hatherly.
Now grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of the discussion.
You know you're living in 2025 China, when a group chat suddenly erupts, not because someone got a promotion or broke up, but because someone just snagged a 99 new NIO ET5 for half price.
It's the new flex, not.
I bought a brand new car, but guess how much money I didn't spend.
Young chinese aren't avoiding the showroom, they are smartly bypassing it.
Forget status.
The real cool is being clever.
Today let's find out why secondhand evs have become the ultimate badge of street smart financial confidence, and how young china is driving the change, starting with a second-hand set of wheels.
So are young people really buying second-hand cars?
I mean, are we only observing the phenomena around us, like one or two young colleagues in the office are doing this, or is the entire market really welcoming this trend?
Yes, our co-worker on the on the eighth floor bought a second-hand car and we thought we'd cover it on the show.
That's why i'm asking, because you know, educate me.
The Chinese used market has been around for years now and this new segment of the market, in particular targeting new energy vehicles and EVs, is relatively new.
But there is a share.
For example, the independent.
In the independent aftermarket service sector, NEV entries have grown, reaching close to 9 for the full year of this year and exceeding 10 in the third quarter of this year.
And that highlights a growing structural component within the overall used car landscape.
And if we're looking at the consumption trend among young people, I think there have been a significant trend about, you know, pragmatic consumption among young people, about any products.
So the new energy vehicles, electric vehicles definitely make sense to us.
What's interesting is that we see China used car manager index for November 2025 was 463, which is slightly lower than previous month.
And we see that it also is a notable drop compared to the previous year.
Yet we see not as many slightly less people.
Fewer people are buying used cars, but more people are buying used EV cars.
Well, I don't know if that should come as surprising or not.
Because new energy vehicles.
There was a report from earlier this year that talked about how it was from the Global Times, where I was reading this, where any production and sales maintained really strong growth from January to October.
And in October, it surpassed 50% of all new vehicle sales for the first time.
We're talking about the secondhand market here today.
But I think looking at the new vehicle market is worth it, because if you're seeing NEV surpass other cars in terms of sales, then I don't think it should be a surprise that we see NEV secondhand market growing so strongly.
There are so many layers when we are talking about this topic.
We talk about the difference between new EV cars.
We're talking about maybe just used cars in general.
We talk about different standards.
When you are looking at a used EV car, the percentage of how used it is.
Because actually if you look at the market, many of the very popular, relatively cheap or good bargain kind of secondhand cars are labeling themselves as 99 new.
Haven't even covered any mile just yet.
Kind of car.
So they're really pretty close to new cars as well.
And also when it comes to the difference between a used car and a used EV car, or used a traditional type of car versus a used EV car.
We also have to see what would be the parts that are mostly used that will need to be replaced by this buyer of the secondhand car.
So, so many layers.
But before all that relatively technical discussion, I'm curious about the idea of buying secondhand stuff.
Because it has not been the kind of concept or very popular consumer tendency in the Chinese market.
But I'm curious to know.
Maybe it's only something that has been popular in China for five, 10 years.
Is it popular in the Western world for longer?
Secondhand?
Secondhand.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, the idea of clothing, thrift shops, I love shopping there.
Last time I went to Florida I bought a pair of shorts for 75 cents, and I'm still talking about those shorts now.
It's one of my proudest purchases ever.
But there's no stigma, I think, attached.
And that extends from clothing to secondhand vehicles to secondhand anything, really.
And that's when I lived in Canada.
When I lived in Korea, though, I saw a change.
And I can't reference any specific statistics or anything, but only based on my own experiences.
This is what I saw.
In Korean culture, and I want to ask if there's any relation to Chinese culture here too.
In the past, when people would move to a new home, for example well, they would want to fill that new home.
Is new.
Yeah, it's a new home, so you want to fill it with new stuff.
New TV, new sofa, new bed, new fridge, new everything.
And that would mean, if you were moving from your old home, your old fridge, your old sofa, your old stuff would get donated or sometimes just thrown out.
I furnished...
My entire apartment.
Now remember.
I should preface this by saying I was 24 years old at the time, but I furnished my entire apartment with stuff that people put out on the sidewalk because they were going to move to a new home and they were just finished with all of that furniture.
So that's the way kind of it used to be.
But then all of a sudden came these apps and the platforms for secondhand stuff.
And before I moved to China, I used those apps to sell Everything that I wanted to sell.
And it's a person-to-person situation, right?
It's a stranger and you contact each other and then you negotiate and then you sell your stuff.
That's become incredibly popular in Korea for everything.
TVs, phones.
This phone that I have right here, I bought it on that app.
And clothing.
It extends to clothing as well.
So I wonder, in China, was there kind of a cultural shift there in that way too?
Do you think yeah, there are definitely a shift when it comes to second hand market of any products.
But um well, first of all, i'm really surprised.
Shocked at your shorts um 75 cents amazing, right?
Not about the price no, steve.
I'm surprised that you, you're thrifting shorts.
I'm sorry.
There was a small rip in the side, but I'm surprised that Steve is picking up furnitures from the side of the street and taking them home.
Oh, you know, I used to do that myself when I was a student.
Thank you, Feifei.
Pick up a piece of furniture.
I think it's a desk or a table.
Oh, you couldn't even identify the furniture.
No, I can't remember them, because we were moving into a new apartment and we sort of some of the furniture came from our, some of our friends, some we picked up on the street, others we, you know, we also have like an on.
We're running on forums, online forums at that time, and we sort of find those second-hand things on on the forum and that was forum.
But now we move to apps like uh, certain fish apps, certain maybe taobao.
You can also uh trade your second-hand products And that can also be anything like, especially if we have kids, you know we also, you know, trade certain baby related products on those platforms.
And it's more economical and, I think, more acceptable among young moms to.
You know, recycle this baby stuff especially.
You know you're going to use it for like a TV.
It just makes sense financially, doesn't it?
Definitely.
But by saying definitely I mean those apps, those kind of secondhand platforms.
They have removed the previous stigma that we had.
That is, we cannot really use the kind of stuff that has been used by strangers.
I mean, if it's our relatives, that's fine.
If it's your friends or your colleagues, that's considered fine.
Somehow we think the things from strangers would have stranger germs that we cannot accept, so we don't used to use it.
But definitely, the secondhand apps have removed those.
But when it comes to cars, when it comes to relatively bigger or major stuff in your life, that...
I think that stigma was attached a bit longer than the small stuff.
For example, for our parents' generation, or even those who are a bit older than us.
They might think getting a car would be an idea, would be a milestone in their life.
It is something that I'm proud of.
It is something that I have to have.
The first one needs to be new in my life.
Almost like a rite of passage.
And I think that that concept exists in the West too, particularly when we're talking about a car like your first car should be a new car.
And then after that, you know, whatever you want to do secondhand or whatever, it's up to you.
But there was something, yeah, like a rite of passage, like a bit of prestige associated with that.
And I think and again I'll ask if this is true in China, but in the West there are.
I think maybe it's still fair to say there was a stigma, an unfair stigma perhaps, with buying a car secondhand, that you couldn't necessarily trust the car or maybe even the person that was selling it to you because they might have a different agenda.
So, yeah, there were, you know, it was kind of discussed in the family and amongst friends.
You know, if you're going to go get a secondhand car, make sure to take someone with you who knows cars so that they can ask the right questions.
Because the idea was, you know the salesperson.
If they see somebody who doesn't really know what questions to ask, maybe that might incentivize them to give them a lesser vehicle.
Now, again, that might be unfair if anybody works in the secondhand market.
I'm not attacking you, I'm simply speaking about stigmas.
Yes, and the two major elements.
First, having a first car or purchasing a car is kind of like a prestige. element is there.
And also the second is I do not really know car that well.
Buying a new car would already mean doing a lot of research, not to say getting a secondhand one.
But I think these two elements or these two reasons are being dealt with in today's world, especially among the younger generation.
For the first one, I think this kind of prestige has a price tag on it.
And if you really compare the price between a first-hand car and a second-hand car that you have your eyes on, the price difference is significant enough to force you, or to push you, to make the right decision.
Especially when we are talking about new energy vehicles.
A lot of the popular models among these young people are, I think, premium models among these brands.
For example, a used BYD can be cut half a price to 30000 yuan, or a Tesla I think more people have a clearer price tag on that a Tesla Model 3 for under 11000 US dollars or a 2024 NIO ET5 for 150000 yuan.
So you can see the price tag is pretty alluring these young buyers to buy them and also considering you know they're still relatively new models.
Mm-hmm.
And so some of them are labeled like 99% new and pretty much unused, almost unused.
That one I know about.
I've seen a lot of young people on the internet discussing that ooh, the latest version of a certain type of cell phone that I really want is about to be released.
Now it is finally the time for me to buy the previous generations, because the previous generation would definitely see a price cut.
So the mentality is similar here.
And it's changing, isn't it?
And I was reading a story this morning.
You know if young Americans have the same kind of attitude towards secondhand vehicles.
And the answer is yes, because they call it sticker shock.
When they see the price of a new vehicle, it kind of shocks them into thinking maybe I don't need this.
Maybe going for a secondhand option is a better one.
And now we're seeing an increase, same point as before, an increase in new energy vehicle sales.
So they're looking at them. as an option.
I mean, there are challenges and there are things that you should look for if you're going to buy a battery vehicle, as you know, your first or second or third car whatever, but things you should look out for.
But people are looking at it as a positive thing now.
And, you know, everybody, I think it's kind of consumer knowledge, too.
People know that when you drive a car off, a new car off the lot, right when you drive it away Well, if you drive it back five minutes later, the dealer is not going to give you the same price that you paid 10 minutes ago.
It's going to be 10% to 20% less, perhaps.
Already, yeah, for EVs.
Yeah, so it's even more for EVs than for gas vehicles.
Yeah, so people are aware of that, and maybe that's why they're making the change.
And besides that, now in China's, and I think around the world's, new vehicle market, you see a lot of... car companies, car manufacturers, new brands, new series, new everything, new model, and they come out every five minutes.
And it's just logical to wait for the latest version, and the previous version got a price cut and then you got a secondhand one.
Then you have your dream car one year later with half the price.
I would make the same choice.
Young people today are so much smarter.
And talking about our second element of the reason that previously in previous generations, people are still a little bit concerned when they're purchasing a secondhand car is what Steve just said is that we do not assume that we have enough knowledge to deal with the previous owner of our dream car, that we kind of like the price range.
We like the car, but we do not know whether or not there are some dirty secrets hidden in the car.
I'm not talking about a sculpt or anything, but whether or not the huh are we still calling it engine is good enough.
Whether or not the battery is old, because I've seen an example saying that for a certain used EV car the battery change would cost over 50000, yet the car itself is only 10000, meaning that if the second-hand dealer changed the battery into a new one and sell it in 10000, no one would buy it.
But if they sell it in five well, excuse me uh, fifty thousand and one hundred thousand, that was this uh, the right price tag here.
Okay, so if they sell it in fifty thousand, then they are looking at doing the business for nothing, no gain at all.
So so that's the problem.
So again, The reason that now a lot of young people find it easier, and also more insured, more assured, to buy the secondhand new vehicle is because now there are so many different trustworthy platforms.
Yeah, exactly.
Especially when it comes to new energy vehicles.
I checked with one of my friends who owned an EV for about three years.
And everything happening with that car is transparent on the app.
The millage, the range of your battery?
What's happening with your car?
How long it's been using it?
Where have you been?
You know, you can't lie.
It's all up there.
Even where you've been.
Yeah, yeah.
Because they have like this GPS thing.
And you can see where you parked the car.
So it's sort of recorded on that platform.
But the thing is...
When we are talking about trading second-hand cars, I think the biggest question most people would have is what if they lied?
What if they lied about the millage?
What if they do something with the engine that makes you believe it's a new car, but it's like 20 usable?
But that can't happen with new energy vehicles now.
Yeah, and that was one of the things that... was on people's radar in the West.
I don't know if dealers ever actually did this.
I think I saw it in a movie or two.
But the, what do you call that?
The tachometer?
Is that the right word?
The mileage reader thing?
I'm not a car expert, obviously.
They would roll it back.
Yeah, I heard the similar story.
To reduce, to make it look like it had traveled not as far as it actually had.
Yeah, of course.
I mean, you want to know the history of the vehicle that you're purchasing, and that's just good advice for any car that you're buying, battery-operated or not.
But with the battery vehicles it's even more important.
I think you could argue because to replace those batteries is so expensive to do.
And you want to know the vehicle's history in terms of accidents too, whether that's been damaged or not in the past.
All that is really important information to know.
So if all of that is available, readily available on the apps, and you can see that information before you even contact the person, that's just going to instill more trust in the potential buyer.
And one thing I personally do not have experience with cars is that for cars there's also a guarantee period, especially for EV cars.
There's a guarantee period for the car for battery.
And That situation is also concerning a lot of people, because you have to make sure you understand all the policies of your car the warranty situation,
But in certain, I think, many of the secondhand dealing platforms here in the Chinese market after they.
Well, because if we talk about secondhand buyer, there must be secondhand seller.
And when they sell their car to the platforms or have their car being put up in the platforms after being properly checked, the guarantee period, the warranty period of those EV cars are also extended by the platform.
The platform would make a deal with the car company themselves.
And all these would ensure a certain level of Making sure that the buyer do not have to worry about this part of the car.
And also a lot of Chinese car brands, especially when it comes to EVs, have this battery swap scheme in place.
So when your battery of your car of their brand is about to reach their limit, you can replace your battery within a few minutes at certain of their stations, so you don't have to.
So a lot of these young buyers are also targeting these brands because that will ease their range anxiety and their battery anxiety.
Yeah, and the ranges are getting better um, the the prices are going down as well uh, so there are plenty of reasons.
We've talked about it on roundtable before.
More charging stations, even charging your car and then selling that energy back to the grid is an option.
So I think these, where they were niche before, NEVs, they're now becoming mainstream.
And when something's new, there's always trust issues, right?
But when we get used to it and it starts to become the norm and obviously here in China you know outselling more than 50 of all new vehicles sold then it is becoming the norm.
And when it does, then people get used to it, they start to trust it more and it becomes more mainstream.
Yes, and it compared a little bit among different markets in the world when it comes to secondhand EV cars.
And the funny thing is, you see the taking off of such market, of such trend in the market is...
There's always a reason behind it.
For the Chinese market.
I think it has something to do with secondhand purchasing in the country has been there for five to 10 years.
We're getting used to it.
We're tapping the water by buying secondhand clothing, secondhand furniture, secondhand beauty product.
That can probably make your scheme better.
You're buying secondhand of it or you're even renting it, removing the stigma of using secondhand stuff and at the same time, there's also the trade in service here in the country, that is, you can trade your used stuff for something new.
If there's that's your need, then the trade trade out goods that you sell to the market would become the product for some people who are in the position or in the place of needing a secondhand car.
Maybe they're young, maybe they are bad drivers not as bad as needed to be trained again in the driving schools, but bad enough that they might scratch their car.
And if it's a new car, imagine how heartbroken it would be.
Oh, the new car scratch.
That's a tough moment.
But if it's already a used car and while you're purchasing it, if there's already a tiny little dent on it and you get a significant percentage off because of that and you no longer need to worry about it, it's also a good idea.
Yeah.
And all that is making it possible here in the Chinese market that more and more smarter consumers, as well as young consumers, are looking at a targeting second-hand new EV.
Yeah, exactly.
I read on the red note actually about these young buyers of second-hand new EVs.
And one of the posts is very interesting.
It says, a 20,000 yuan second-hand new EV just matches my two-month-old driving license.
Just got her driving license.
So it sort of makes sense to buy a cheaper option now to test the you know, practice her driving a little bit before investing heavily into a newer and poshier model.
And I also want to say that Actually here in China, I think in the past of this year the models out there are just exploding.
For example, in the first four months of this year, we saw 430 new models of electric vehicles hitting the market.
So I think it makes sense that some of the cars well, i think for young, for the younger generation cars are no longer prestige, it's no longer an investment, it's more like a phone, a mobile phone, something.
And i think, a key point, there is something that you might consider changing every two or three years, two or three years.
You said that your friend had an ev for three years and then changed to a different vehicle.
No, he was.
He had that vehicle for three years and when he went back to his store to sort of maintained it he found a lot of the systems on his vehicle is so outdated.
And that's another thing about the EV market too is that, you know, the tech is so impressive and cars are constantly being updated with the newest and coolest gadgets.
And there's a market for that.
But there's also a market for people who don't necessarily need the newest and coolest tech.
And that's where the secondhand market can come into play as well.
Yeah.
OK, finally, for those who are looking at buying a secondhand car, any advice?
Ask a lot of questions.
Do your research.
Do your research about the model itself and compare.
I don't mean compare prices.
Yes, of course, do that.
But also compare cars from different companies in the same price range, because you'll have options there, right.
And then once you've narrowed it down to one...
Go online, get the questions, a list of questions that you should ask.
And if you still don't feel comfortable, I think that old advice of bringing someone with you who knows it still works now.
Yeah.
And also a dealer.
I think a trustworthy dealer is also very important.
We have a lot of pretty popular apps platforms, online platforms these days that you can ask your questions if you don't have anybody in your life who really know cars that well, and you can seek help there.
And a personal advice from me would be color is not the biggest, biggest issue when it comes to car purchasing.
Yes, and also think about how many same cars there is in the market that you have your eyes on, because if you need to change any parts, it's nicer to be able to find those parts that you will need to change.
I can introduce you to my shorts dealer in Florida if that's what you were getting at there.
Or maybe your street that you got your furniture.
Where can you buy shorts for 75 cents?
It's impossible.
Why buy shorts in a secondhand store?
That's a different question for a different day.
We will talk about it.
