Credit: General Motors

Sales of used electric vehicles are surging in the US as models bought during a post-pandemic boom flood back onto the market, offering prospective buyers relief from a sharp rise in petrol prices.

First-quarter used EV sales rose 12 percent compared with the same period last year and 17 percent on the previous quarter, according to Cox Automotive estimates. Sales of new EVs in the first quarter are estimated to have slumped by 28 percent year on year following the Trump administration’s withdrawal in 2025 of a $7,500 consumer tax credit.

Analysts attribute the surge to a glut of hundreds of thousands of cheap pre-owned EVs that were purchased on leases in the early 2020s and which are now returning to market as those leases expire. According to credit bureau Experian, EVs will account for 15 percent of all off-lease vehicles at the end of this year, up from 7.7 percent in the first quarter.

The supply glut helped drive the average price of a used EV down by 8.5 percent between February 2025 and February 2026, according to Cox, closing the average price gap between used EVs and used petrol-powered vehicles from $4,923 to $1,334.

“We’re seeing a meaningful reset in EV pricing,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Cox’s director of industry insights.

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Barclays analyst Dan Levy said that following the Biden administration’s introduction of the $7,500 credit in 2022, buyers were able to access new electric models on leases with lower monthly payments than for less expensive combustion-engine models.

He noted in June last year the average monthly payment for a leased Chevrolet Blazer EV, which had a base price of $44,600, was $515, compared with an average payment of $586 for its petrol-powered equivalent, which had a base price of $35,600.

The lease deals powered a surge in EV purchases, with their share of the overall US auto market doubling to 5.2 percent between 2021 and 2022 and rising to 7.7 percent in 2024, according to Edmunds, before falling back to around 6.5 percent this year.

The deals also helped feed an aggressive price war led by market leader Tesla as it sought to defend its market share. That helped drive sales, but also drove down the value of used EVs.

Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, said that with more people shopping around for deals due to the soaring cost of car ownership, the heavily discounted used models flooding onto the market would probably act as a “gateway” to EV ownership.

Average petrol prices in the US pushed past $4 a gallon this week for the first time since 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while the average purchase price for a new car is at near-record levels. Analysts attribute sluggish overall sales in the first quarter of this year in part to mounting concerns over affordability.

Against that backdrop, Duncan Aldred, president of GM’s North America business, told an automotive forum in New York this week that the Detroit car giant had seen “some peaking of interest” in EVs among buyers during the past month.

However, analysts said it was still too early to predict if high petrol prices would translate into a meaningful rise in sales of new EVs, noting persistent concerns among mainstream consumers about their ability to go on long journeys in a large country with inadequate charging infrastructure.

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Manufacturers including Ford and GM have announced plans for a new generation of more affordable EVs due to be released over the next few years. In the meantime, said Caldwell, shoppers were likely to be surprised by how much used electric models had improved since the last time they shopped.

“In 2022, the last time we saw a gas price spike, they would have been looking at vehicles from around 2019, when EVs weren’t quite there yet,” she said.

Mike Murphy, co-founder of the EVs For All America pressure group, added that many of the obstacles to EV adoption were quietly being addressed, noting that the build-out of US charging infrastructure had accelerated last year despite the slowdown in EV sales.

“The dream of mass EV adoption here in America is not dead yet,” he said.

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