Pricing for used all-electric vehicles has declined sharply in the last several months, with used EVs depreciating 10 times faster than equivalent gasoline-powered vehicles over the past year. That includes prices for used units of the Chevy Bolt EV, which had the biggest year-over-year price drop among a wide variety of EVs studied in a new analysis. The broader price decline for used EVs is attributed to aggressive price cuts for new Tesla models.
According to a report from car search and research company iSeeCars, the average price for a used EV fell 31.8 percent since last year, as compared to a 3.6-percent decline for the average used car price. The report indicates that the average price for a used Chevy Bolt EV is $17,981, a year-over-year price difference of $7,847, placing the Bolt at the top spot in an iSeeCars study of the top 10 cars with the biggest year-over-year price drop (in terms of percentage). The Nissan Leaf was second on the list, dropping $7,329 to an average used price of $17,895, while the Kia Niro EV was third on the list with a $9,236 price drop to $24,802.
The report points to aggressive price cuts for new Teslas as a major contributing factor.
“Elon Musk’s initial price reductions on new Teslas were already impacting EV values a year ago,” said iSeeCars Executive Analyst, Karl Brauer. “But his repeated price cuts kept pushing used Tesla prices down, which spread to all electric vehicles, creating weakness across the used EV market.”
The iSeeCars study is based on prices recorded for more than 1.8 million one- to five-year-old used cars sold between February of 2023 and February of 2024. The average listed price was compared between the two time periods, and quantified as both a percentage difference from the 2023 price, as well as a dollar difference. Heavy-duty vehicles, low-volume vehicles, and vehicles discontinued as of the 2023 model year were excluded.
The price reduction for used Bolts can also be attributed to a production increase for new vehicles, with 70,000 Bolt EV / EUV units produced during the 2023 calendar year. As a result, additional units are available on the market to catch up with demand.
As GM Authority covered previously, production of the Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV was concluded late last year for the 2023 model year. Looking ahead, GM has confirmed that the next-generation Chevy Bolt EV is under development, expected to arrive for the 2026 model year.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Chevy Bolt EV news, Chevy news, GM electric vehicle news, GM business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
That used price depends on the model year
It may be for a 2015 year.
GM Owner: Sadly, no. As an example, I have had my 2023 Bolt EV for almost 15 months now and have 14,600 miles on it. With the new Bolt (still 2023’s) now having the $7,500 taken off at the point of sale and some dealers out here discounting the Bolt’s by up to $2,000.00, I thought it may be a good opportunity to get the 2LT with all the extra’s at a really good price. Yes, the brand new one is a fantastic price for sure. But when I took my car to CarMax to see what I could get for it, I was shocked when they came back at 17 grand. Just to see how much worse the dealership would be, I had them price it and they offered my 15 grand!
That doesn’t make a lick of sense. Did you even read what I said? Did you comprehend it?
I absolutely don’t need to get rid of my current 2023 Bolt. I love the car and in fact was simply looking to get the exact same car and year with just more equipment since the price is so good. But since that brand new price is so good, it obviously makes my used one worth less. Ok. No problem. I just decided to keep my car. Not a big deal.
So no “consequences” to “suffer”.
Some context would help; what was the net cost of the Bolt after tax credit (before fees and taxes)?
I bought new (dealer courtesy car with 2000 miles used to drive customers places, not a loaner) loaded BOLT EUV LT (msrp $32k) in Feb. for $22k with $7500 point of purchase tax credit, $500 Educator discount and $2000 dealer discount (also had $2000 in GM credit card points not included in the $22K).
Tom S: I purchased mine January of 2023 before you could take the point of sale rebate of 7500. I was hopeful that I could take advantage of the tax credit, but it didn’t help any and I didn’t use it. That’s why I figured maybe purchase another new Bolt EV with a lot more features.
On the one I priced, it was around $32,280 MSRP (2LT with entertainment package, adaptive cruise and something else). The dealer was giving a 2 grand dealer discount with no strings attached. Then take the 7500 off with the before tax price of $22,780. They told me if I signed up for the GM rewards card that I’d get an additional $500 off plus the EVGo $500 for charging. It was looking very attractive until I got the value of my car. I knew it was going to be lower than I wanted, but not that much. On top of that, they didn’t have the color I wanted (same blue I have now or red). So I passed. I love my car.
CIM88sev86: if you have tax liability in 2023 and your income is not too high then you should be able use some of the $7500 when doing your taxes for 2023. Can’t carry forward to future tax years like you can with a solar tax credit.
Tom: I already did my taxes for 2023 and my tax preparer looked at every thing we could. Even though I reduced how much tax I was paying throughout the 2023 year, I still got a refund and thus the tax credit did me no good. So I didn’t use it of course and instead thought I’d use it as a point of purchase on a new car.
EVs are fantastic! What in the world are you talking about?
Regardless of whether your car is powered by a gasoline or electric motor, driving is heavily subsidized by the United States government and the states. Considering the average worth of a life of an adult person is around 10 million and we are allowed to drive around cars with only 350,000 liability insurance, someone is making up the difference and I would say that it’s probably the government. Neither electric cars nor gasoline cars cover the cost of damage to the roads every year in the federal highway. Trust fund is insignificant or errors in the United States has a terrific infrastructure problem to keep drivers on the road. There are lots of subsidies for building new highways but very little in the way of subsidizing roads that need repair. No one questions or tries to justify the amount of any amount of spending to add Elaine to a freeway in each direction which can cause billions of dollars and there’s no justification for this especially when it just leads to induced demand and increased traffic. There’s also no way that drivers will pay the real cost of the pollution that their cars cost every person alive but especially people who live close to freeways you have to breathe in automobile emissions, brake dust, tire dust and must deal with the issue of oil and antifreeze leaking out into freshwater streams. Streams. All of these things cause significant health problems leading at least one analyst to say that it’s really not 40,000 people who die every year on American roads. It’s more like 85,000 people a year who die because of driving. The increased sedentary nature of people who drive, to the melodies that the pollution that their cars produce, to the fact that the streets are no longer safe for pedestrians and cyclists because law enforcement subsidizes driving and the damaging way that allows them to flagrantly disobey traffic laws that make our neighborhood streets and arterial roads safer because there’s no debating that speed causes accidents and the greater drivers are allowed to drive the more accidents they have, the more people they kill and injure. If you do it with a gun, they call it murder, if you do it with a car, you’ll generally get away with it.
That makes no sense at all. Cars depreciate. No one buys a car so it holds dollar value. You buy it to drive reliably. These are great cars. Don’t be a gas douche
I agree in spirit. But there is also the disappointment when your car is devalued at a rapid rate to the wooing in which you are under water. And are making payments on a car that might be less than what you owe. This paying more than what the car is worth.
Every car loses 20% the second it is driven off the lot, so unless you put down 25% you will be underwater on day 1. This has nothing to do with it is an EV or not.
That’s a no duh. Everybody knows your new car devalues after purchase. The article says that the bolt value decreased year over year by 30 – 35 %
Tim: first off it doesn’t appear that “everyone” understands the large first year depreciation. My point about the author is that they don’t understand the impact of $7500 tax credits and state rebates that can run as hight as $5k on a new car. These credits bring the actual original cost WAY down.
Better to degrade the car than the planet. Come on! It’s crunch time with global warming!
Stupid comment for sure in 2024 …..
None of this comes as a surprise at all. When you have Tesla dropping prices like a hot potato and cars like the Bolt that can have $7,500 taken off at the point of sale, what would you expect? Don’t believe me? Look at the drop for the Bolt at $7800 is almost exactly the same as the federal tax incentive. This is an age-old issue. When you drop the price on a product, that directly affects the price of the used products. If a $1,400 Apple Computer was suddenly reduced in price by half, the used ones would be worth less.
It has nothing to do with Tesla dropping prices. Teslas price drop more has to do with the fact there is no demand for EV’s. It’s more to do with Ford/chevy/Nissan dropping incentives on EV’s nobody wants, in the case of ford, 15K in the case of the Lightning or MachE, which they have to give with them piling up at dealerships. Used market is the same way. People buying these thinking they’ll like them, and then flip them after a couple years once they’re done with them and finding nobody is buying them. It’s always been a Niche market, now it’s a saturated Niche market.
Steven: I feel like there’s a lot of incorrect things in your comment. First, “no demand for EV’s”? EV sales are up. There’s demand. All vehicle sales are down and this is due to higher interest rates and people being pushed out of the market by vehicle prices. Second, Tesla playing games with their prices (up, down, up again, down again, down yet again) causes instability in the market. Them being a roller coaster with pricing is certainly not helping. The fact that Ford put all it’s eggs in the higher priced EV basket is their problem. Even with incentives, you can’t buy a Ford EV for under 30 grand, so that’s on them. Lastly, if you think that EV’s are a “niche” market, then there’s probably nothing more to say here. That’s just you sticking your head in the sand. Now, you may not like it and may fight it. That’s your prerogative. But EV’s are here, getting more popular and staying.
I don’t think it’s Tesla directly but Hertz flooding the market with a ton of used M3s.
Toney: I’ve watched a few videos about those Hertz Tesla’s. Most of them have/had a ton of miles on them and from what I’m reading, many were not in the best condition. Even still, most of them have been selling for around 25 grand from what I understand. I wouldn’t ever buy one of those high miles Model 3’s driven by who knows how many people beating the heck out of them. At least not for anything over 20 grand.
Dealers like to really take advantage of customers when trading in a car.
Last year i traded in a car when paying MSRP on a new one.
The Kelly Bluebook Wholesale value $18,600.00.
The most they would give for the one year old car with 6,000 miles was $15,000.00
Very relucktently traded cars. Had it been normal times I would have walked away.
The new car I wanted was tough to find. I drove a long ways to look at the car.
A week later I looked on their website and my car that I traded in was on the lot at $23,899.00.
Almost $9000 mark up . I realize they might not get the full price but that is highway robbery.
The Dealers wonder why we don’t trust them.
It’s the same with normal cars too. The kicker for stealers is they have to offer enough to keep you from selling it yourself. It’s a battle either way. Thing with an EV however that is really hard to move period, your kind stuck with what the stealers give ya.
Nick and Steven: You hit the nail on the head. The dealers are a total joke when it comes to trading in cars. And I work at a dealership!! I’m no longer in direct sales, but at times will work with clients. If they let me know early in the process about a possible trade, I always tell them to take it to CarMax. This is even more true in California where they tax you on the full price of the car and not the trade difference like most states to. Talk about a rip off! Thus there’s really zero incentive to trade the car in on a new one and instead just sell it to CarMax.
In my example for me personally above, the dealer offered me 15 grand where CarMax offered 17 grand. Obviously I didn’t take either offer. When I asked the dealer I was working with why so much less, he told me they would have the standard $2,800 reconditioning/service department cost. This would be on a 15 month old car with 14,000 miles in absolute perfect condition and needs nothing.
Dealers will have a price listed higher than KBB dealer price, but will offer you less than KBB trade in price. I just walk away, but understand people can’t always do that.
The government shouldn’t be subsidizing anyone’s vehicles! You want one, buy it with your money. Not some voting gimmick which forces other to pony up the difference for someone else’s wheels! Let the mfgs pay for the discount as they should. The dealer’s shouldn’t have to either. The government needs to stop picking winners and losers. It’s called a free market. Free of interference. Are you listening Dumbo in the Whitehouse?? Brain dead fool!
Apply your take to homes too. Why should we subsidize a homeowner with a mortgage interest deduction on their taxes or a child credit, and host of other tax write offs.
Tesla’s discounts still don’t stack up to the value of the Bolt EV. My 2023 Bolt EV 2LT was around 31K fully loaded. Then subtract the $7500 tax savings, so now we’re at $23,500. For $23,500 I have a fully loaded vehicle with leather, bose, wireless charging, 360 camera, lane depature warning, lane keep assist, frontal collision alert, adaptive cruise control, wireless charging, heated seats and steering wheel. On a car that requires almost no maintenance or requires gas. GM even paid to have the level 2 outlet installed in my garage. I have a 8 year 100K warranty on the battery pack. Every vehicle is a liability, never an asset. They ALL depreciate. Depreciation is irrelivant considering the savings this little EV will bring me for many years to come.
Does this study take into account the glut of Lemon titled battery recall cars that recently entered the market at dealerships across the country? The majority of those were available for substantial discounts versus their non-lemon counterparts. It would be nice to know if they filtered those cars out of the study or not.
The author of this article really should put quotation marks when he says he is a journalist (oops, I mean “journalist “). A MAJOR contributor to used EV prices dropping in 2024 is that dealers started including the $4k point of sale tax credit in their prices. Cars that we being offered for $18k magically now are being offered at $14k. There are other reasons as well. For example, GM fire-sold a bunch of buybacks that all hit the market in late 2023. Also, anyone who thinks they can flip a new car and get close to their money back are delusional. EVERY car drops 20% in value the second it is driven off the lot. Factor in $11k in tax incentives and rebates and how is anyone remotely surprised that a $32k EV is worth more than $17k used? The market isn’t going to allow people to profit flipping cars. That’s also why the $4k credit is only valid on cars that are at least two years old.
Exception to the depreciation rule is the C8 Corvette. Sold my 2.5 year old 2021 C8 for what I bought it for (10k miles).
That is true for certain cars of course. That being said, 95% of cars are the market will eventually depreciate to $0. The “journalist” isn’t talking about classics cars, only about all EVs. These are unlikely to become classic cars.
Bolt-Owner: I am picking up that you may be referring to me in my post above. No worries if you are or not. But I’ll address this. So first, I’m certainly not “flipping” my car. That was never the thought even. For me, when I ordered my car in September of 2022, I ordered the base (1LT) with a few options with an MSRP of $28,315. The dealer I work with didn’t add any markup to it, so I paid MSRP. The car arrived January of 2023. Again, at that time, no discount of any sort, but they didn’t mark it up like many other dealers were. At that time, you couldn’t take the 7500 tax incentive at the point of sale. Sadly (or happily I guess) I was not able to take advantage of any tax credit on my 2023 taxes. Thus I decided to look into buying the higher equipped 2LT using the point of sale 7500 and dealers are now discounting them some.
Going into it, I knew my car would bring less due to those same things. However, there’s zero reason why either CarMax or the dealer wouldn’t give me 19 grand for my car. They are not taking into account that someone coming in would be eligible for the $4000 tax credit at the time of sale, thus giving them (dealers) an extra 4 grand to play with. That’s why I passed. Well that and the fact that GM still hasn’t put any low interest rates for the Bolt which is what would have sealed the deal for me.
To cim88, I was using you situation as an example because you are swimming in the same ocean as others who are in a similar situation and probably can get the tax credit. I’m assuming you made too much last year so couldn’t use the tax credit, and it’s hard to feel sorry for people making too much money anyway! :-). My issue is with the “journalist “ who clearly is misleading readers. This could be deliberate by having an anti-EV axe to grind or out of laziness. Car’s depreciate – almost always to zero – and new cars depreciate faster than used ones (unless they are classics). There needs to be some context here.
Bolt-Owner: I only wish I made too much money to use the tax credit. Sadly, the fact is that I certainly qualify by income, but with standard deductions I was already getting a refund. Thus the tax credit that so many crow about is worthless to most buyers. Being able to take the 7500 as a point of sale discount is 100% better. I’m certain most people buying a Bolt are not super high income earners. Most are probably like me (and you??) who buy that car for the low cost and savings.
Your refund has nothing to do with the tax credit. A tax credit reduces your tax liability and increases your refund. Even if you only made $50k you should have been able to use some of that credit.
My bolt costs me $5.00 to go 200 miles. I have had zero issues and recently got a brand new battery compliments of GM. I could not care any less about the resale value. These prices will go up once gas goes up again.