There are some asterisks, but this is cool.
Until recently, a cheap electric car was a contradiction in terms. The average price of an EV in 2022 reached $66,000, about $18,000 more than a comparable gasoline vehicle. The cheapest ones couldn’t compete with budget gasoline cars. Used ones, if you could find them, sometimes sold for close to the original price.
But the gap is shrinking fast. In some cases, it no longer exists. New EVs are expected to reach price parity with gas cars around 2027. Used EVs, in some cases, are already there or sell for less thanks to generous government incentives, rising supply and fierce competition.
Automotive analysts say the market for buying a used EV has never been this good or this big: Used electric car sales hit a record of about 400,000 vehicles last year, double the volume in 2020, as prices sink to record lows.
And used EVs may be key to decarbonizing our roads. “For every new car, there are two used ones on the road,” says Liz Najman, a climate researcher at Recurrent, a start-up monitoring EV battery health. “To meet any climate targets, we need to have people comfortable driving in a used EV.”
“It is the best time ever to buy a used EV,” says Drury. “In almost every and any aspect, it’s better today than it ever has been.”
Almost every model has seen price cuts after Tesla sparked a price war by aggressively slashing sticker prices to defend its shrinking market share, now down to 51 percent of the U.S. EV market.
In July 2022, the price of a used Tesla Model Y (2021 model year) was $71,000. Today, it’s $32,000, reports Edmunds. Most remarkably, a used Tesla Model 3 is now cheaper than the average used gasoline vehicle. The average Model 3 sold for about $25,000 in March, roughly 15 percent below the average for all used cars.
And chances are a used EV will be in better shape than the average used car since they’re often high quality, low mileage and well maintained, says Drury: “For the most part, you’re getting someone’s early-adopter vehicles.”
Rental companies such as Hertz are also offloading some of their EV fleet. While these may have seen heavier use over a few years, corporate service schedules mean they’re very well maintained. Drury advises checking for cosmetic damage, wear-and-tear and non-routine maintenance issues such as suspension.
Should I worry about battery life span?
People assume a used EV battery is like the battery in their iPhone: It wears out and must be replaced. “They are totally different beasts,” says Najman “In the data we’re seeing, all batteries are holding up remarkably well.”
Because of sophisticated cooling hardware and management software, most batteries are expected to outlive their car. Recurrent studied the loss of lithium-ion battery capacity in 15,000 EVs going back as far as 2011. Degradation, they found, tends to follow an S-curve. A modern EV with a 250- or 300-mile range might lose roughly 20 to 40 miles of maximum range over the first 20,000 miles, and then level off to about 1 percent of the battery capacity annually. For a Tesla Model 3 with 341 miles of range, that translates to a maximum range of about 300 miles after a decade.
In order to get the most out of an electric vehicle, it’s usually recommended to have some form of fast charging at home. These chargers cost anywhere from $250 to $750, and installation can run you somewhere around $1,600.
Depending on your state, the energy usage for overnight charging can start to get pricey as well.
Perhaps one of the reasons you can get such a good deal on a Tesla at Hertz right now is that the outlook for EV value retention is pretty grim at the moment.
A recent study from iSeeCars found that electric cars have an average five-year depreciation rate of 49.1%, compared to an industry average of 38.8%.
Tesla’s Model 3 does fare the best in resale values, only falling 42.9% in five years, but as Tesla lathers on more discounts for new models, that could quicken the pace of depreciation.
In order to get the most out of an electric vehicle, it’s usually recommended to have some form of fast charging at home. These chargers cost anywhere from $250 to $750, and installation can run you somewhere around $1,600.
“Fast charging” can be a confusing term. In this case they mean a Level 2 charger, and even then there is a range of charging rates (12 to 80 amps).
Roughly
Level 1: Plug into a regular wall outlet, AC gets converted* by car
Level 2: Dedicated 240V device installed in homes, AC gets converted* by car
Level 3: What people call DC fast charging, that goes straight to the battery
https://www.cars.com/articles/what-is-level-1-2-3-charging-437766/
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*The device in EVs used to convert alternating current to direct current is called a rectifier. (EVs that can produce house power have bidirectional rectifiers.)
My donated 7-year-old 2015 Leaf got $10k at auction.
Five years ago I acquired a plug-in Prius Prime (a hybrid). New ones were not to be had in the Midwest. Toyota dealer told me they could get maybe 1 per year, and offered to sell me one for nearly 20% over sticker price. Used cars from Toyota dealers and Carmax were almost all on the east and west coasts, maybe a dozen sprinkled across the country in between. I did find one eventually, after a few months of regularly checking the used car inventory web sites. The dealer essentially charged list price for a vehicle with about 8k miles on it. Used EVs (which I also briefly considered) were considerably more expensive also fairly scarce.
It is kind of good to know the used EV market is more normal now.
Mark Mills debates the CEO of a transportation company on whether EVs will disappoint environmentalists. The debate is scored by what percentage of the audience changes their mind. Mills wins by moving them about 17% in his direction: