EVs tend to lose their value more quickly than ICEs (or at least they have in the past).
I can easily pick up a 4-year-old LEAF for $8-9000 at the moment (sold $32K+ new) and a 3-year-old Spark for $9-11K (28K when new). That is 25-35% of the price when the vehicle was new.
That may not be the case for the new crop of longer-range EVs, since :
- going from 220 miles to 180 because of battery degradation (or 160 to 130) is a lot less of a problem than going from 80 to 55 miles of range.
- the tax credit slowly going away (the major EV manufacturers are going to hit the 200,000 vehicle limit this year: Tesla, Chevy, Nissan). The tax credit immediately lowered the value of the vehicle by $7500.
- the range of BEVs is constantly going up
- EVs are more mainstream now (altho still only 1% or so of total personal vehicle sales in the U.S.) so the "worry factor" or "strange car" mindset isn't there so much.
- related to the previous point, EVs are in more demand now, and demand currently exceeds supply. (Chevy is selling EVERY Bolt it produces, people are lining up for the new LEAF, people have been lining up for the model3 for over a year, Hyundai can't deliver enough Ioniq EVs, ...) I don't know of many EVs that are sitting around on lots (altho there was a glut of Bolts in CA a couple of months ago)
Now, Teslas keep their value *because* you have to wait to get one, and always have. Since it is hard to get a new one, it drives up the price on the secondary market. So, IF (say) there are 12000 people who want to buy a mission-e every year, but Porsche only manufactures 5000 a year, the price on used ones will stay high since even those who are willing to pay full price for new can't get one.
I'm wondering what the price of a used Chevy Bolt will be in 2020. The first year's lease returns will be piling in. Will Chevy (or some other GM nameplate) be selling a BEV built on the Bolt platform, but with a 330 mile range, for about $37K? If so, the price of Bolts will be lower than if the average range of new EVs is still around 250 miles.