Used Electric Vehicles — Is Now The Time To Buy, Or Better To Wait?
May 18, 20261 hour
Zachary Shahan
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The used electric vehicle market is becoming one of the most interesting for me here in the United States. For years, there was pretty limited supply since not many EVs had been produced and there weren’t even that many models on the market. However, at the same time, depreciation was superb (for second-time buyers, not for sellers). The $7,500 federal EV tax credit meant that a used EV should be $7,500 cheaper before a mile was put on the odometer. Now, we have many more models, several of them have been on the market for at least a few years, and more and more are coming off of lease every day — but there are no federal subsidies to bring down costs. At the same time, we have the whole war in Iran and spiking oil and gas prices.
So, where do we actually stand with the used electric vehicle market? Is now the time to buy, before gas prices keep rising and a lot more buyers turn to EVs? Or is it better to wait for many more EVs to come off of lease and for gas prices to eventually fall?
There is no definite answer. We don’t know what the future is going to hold. Some auto dealers are offering significant discounts on certain EV models right now — Hyundai, Kia, and Volkswagen models, for example, have been seeing huge dealer incentives. Will those last if the Iran situation isn’t resolved and gas prices keep going through the roof? I doubt it. However, if we get past this crisis in the next month or two and then a record number of EVs come off of 3-years leases, electric cars could flood dealer lots and you might find the best deals ever.
Clearly, I’m not giving you an answer here, since I don’t know what the future holds. The market has changed so much in the past year, let alone the past three to five years. Big macro changes shake things up, and the fact that the EV market is still so young and nascent means that the current quarter or year is always new territory.
However, if you think you’ve got the answer, chime in down below. Even better, if you’ve got some evidence to back your theory up, show us what you’ve got! I’m going to be combing through used EV data soon in order to compared prices on used EV models to prices three months ago, five months ago, and six months ago. What we will find, I don’t know yet. Even more so, though, what we will find further down the road is a complete mystery. There are too many unknowns. Some of you will have theories that are proven right, and you can then tell us about how prescient and smart you are. Others may have good theories but ones that just don’t play out in the real world for one reason or another. Be brave and tell us what you think now, before the future is told.
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