This text is taken from Courrier de l’ économique. Click here to subscribe.
Electric vehicles have been on our roads for a few years now, and the effect of the pandemic is starting to dissipate. Bottom line: there has never been a better time than now to buy a used electric vehicle.
If market data is anything to go by, at least. In the United States, the average price paid for a used electric vehicle has fallen by 32% since February 2023, calculates the specialized site iSeeCars based on the price paid in 1.8 million transactions carried out across the United States. .
It is enormous ! And this is partly caused by a unique event: the American vehicle rental agency Hertz liquidated 20,000 of its electric cars at the start of the year, because it preferred to get rid of them rather than repair them.
This decision has repercussions even on the Canadian used vehicle market, confirm sellers to whom The duty spoke in the last days. One of them said he had seen the price of certain models, such as Tesla’s Model 3 and Volkswagen’s ID.4, drop “by almost a third in a few months”.
A return to normal
Other factors explain this price drop. Tesla, in fact – whose market share in electric is almost 50% – has repeatedly lowered the price of its new vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y in particular. This had a ripple effect on the price of used Model 3s and Model Ys.
More generally, manufacturers have replenished their stocks of new electric vehicles, which is reducing pressure on the resale market.
Until now, it was very difficult to buy a used electric car. Until recently, there were very few electric vehicles on the road, so, inevitably, there were simply few vehicles to spare. Demand has always been very strong.
Since the most attractive used vehicle was, for a time, the Chevrolet Spark EV, a microcar with a range of less than 150 km per charge, let’s say that the choice was not very great.
And all things being equal, as economists say, this inflated the value of the rare used electric vehicles on sale.
Then, the effect of the pandemic finally dissipated entirely. These two pandemic years have turned upside down the normally fast-paced supply chain of the entire automotive industry. The lack of parts led to a shortage of new vehicles, which caused a rush for almost new vehicles. A wave so significant that the price of certain used vehicles was higher than their new equivalent. Including electrical.
Obviously, the market for used electric vehicles is still very young and we do not yet know very well the real lifespan of these vehicles.
If now is a good time to buy an electric vehicle on the resale market, it may be even better next year, or the year after…
But whatever. Given the rising price of gasoline, given that everything is too expensive anyway, and also given the prevailing eco-anxiety, buying a used electric vehicle can help solve several problems at the same time.