Tesla sales aren’t looking that great on the used car market, either
Sales are rising nowhere near as fast as they are for non-Tesla electric vehicles.
So far, it’s been a rough year for Tesla, what with new car sales dropping around the world despite the company’s prediction it would return to growth in 2025.
But what about the much larger, but interrelated, market for used vehicles?
As more EVs become available on the secondary market in the US and as their prices more closely match those of internal combustion engines (much more so than in the new car market), used EV purchases have been taking off at a rapid clip, according to new data shared with Sherwood News from auto research and shopping site CarGurus.
In the US, overall used EV sales were up 33.6% in February compared to a year earlier.
While Tesla’s Model 3, Y, and S remain the top-selling EV models in the US, their lead in the field is narrowing with competitors.
If you look at used EV sales without Tesla, they were up nearly 50% in February. Used Tesla sales have been growing much more slowly: about 17% in that time.
Meanwhile, after rising significantly in 2022 and 2023, the portion of non-Teslas to Tesla EVs on the secondary market has remained pretty steady lately.
Over time, these trends have meant that Tesla’s portion of used EV sales in the US has declined to just 43% in February. A similar thing has happened in the new car market, where Teslas dropped to 44% of new EV sales in Q4.
That’s despite numerous promotions and price cuts on new Teslas that have translated to lower prices in the used market, where the average selling price of a Tesla is now less than that of a non-Tesla.
