EV Sales Into Auctions Skyrocket as Used EV Values Fall

It's not hard to connect the dots: More EVs are moving into consignor and auction channels; and used EV values are declining faster than the values of ICE vehicles compared to last year, recent May vehicle sales data shows.

Fleet/lease sales of electric vehicles up to 5-years-old reached nearly 4,900 vehicles in May, 13% more than in April and 188% higher on a prior-year basis, according to AuctionNet figures released June 6.

Fleet/lease consignors have sold nearly 20,400 electric vehicles through AuctionNet auctions YTD, an increase of 168% compared to the same period last year.

"This trend has more to do with the fact that progressively larger numbers of new EVs were sold into commercial fleets over the past 1.5 years than before when sales were nascent and low," said Larry Dixon, vice president of auction data solutions for the National Auto Auction Association. "Basically, we’re seeing EV auction volume move higher because of the natural lag between new sales trends and subsequent used sales trends."

While EV prices had been depressed heading into April, there have been signs of improvement over the past two months, at least for certain models.

For example, prices for high-volume 3-year-old Tesla Model Y and Model 3 prices grew by an average of 3% monthly in May, while wholesale prices overall fell by 2.7%.

Monthly AuctionNet data is derived from 265 NAAA member auctions that use AuctionNet. It is considered the most comprehensive source of wholesale auto auction sales data in the U.S.

The top two selling 3-year-old wholesale EVs and luxury models overall are the 2021 Tesla Model Y crossover and the 2021 Tesla Model 3 sedan.

Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted EV values for May 2024 were down 16%, while non-EVs were down 11.6% year over year, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI) released June 7. Regarding values against last month, seasonally adjusted EV values continued to decline more than the market overall, falling by 2.4% from April 2024, while non-EVs declined 1% over the same period.