New And Used EVs Take Twice As Long To Sell Compared To Last Year

It seems that US dealers have a hard time selling electric vehicles despite the major price drops during the past year. In general, used cars sell slightly faster compared to last year as buyers look for better deals and slowly move away from new and higher-priced mainstream offerings that are no longer hurt by availability issues.

The data for July 2023 shows that it takes an average of 50 days to sell a new EV, which is almost double the time it took in July 2022 (25.2 days). The situation is even worse for used EVs, now selling at an average of 57.8 days compared to 26.4 days last year. While this is bad news for most carmakers with EVs in their range, it is actually good news for prospective EV buyers, as they can strike better deals and benefit from wider availability.

According to the latest market study from iSeeCars, the fastest-selling new EV excluding Teslas is the Chevrolet Bolt EUV (29.1 days) despite the model going out of production by the end of the year in favor of a new generation. As for used, EVs, the fastest seller is the Tesla Model Y (47.6 days), followed by the Nissan Leaf (51.3 days) and the Tesla Model 3 (51.8 days).

The post-pandemic world initially suffered from great demand and poor supply of new vehicles, with buyers having no other option than turning to the used car market. While supply is no longer an issue, buyers remain interested in used vehicles, which may present a better value compared to a new but pricier equivalent.

The average used car independent of powertrain type costs $33,240 and takes 49 days to sell which is 3.6% cheaper and 6.1% faster compared to last year. On the other hand, the average new car costs $45,936 and needs 48.2 days to sell which is 3.8% more expensive and 25.7% slower compared to last year.

More: Sub-$20K Used Cars Accounted For Roughly Half Of The Market Pre-Pandemic, Now They Are Almost Gone

The fastest-selling new cars are the Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid (9.2 days), the Range Rover (10.4 days), and the non-hybrid Toyota Grand Highlander (10.7 days). As for the fastest-selling used cars, those are the Honda HR-V (34.4 days), the Acura ILX (35.3 days), and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid (36.6 days). You can see the top 20 spots for both new and used vehicles on the charts below.

Data also shows that buyers steer away from mainstream top sellers in the new and used car market, in a quest to find better prices. More specifically, the most popular new and used cars sell 29.2% and 26% slower respectively on a year-to-year basis.

Analysts believe that demand for used cars will remain strong as prices slowly drop over the next 6-12 months. On the other hand, dealers will need to work harder to sell new cars especially when it comes to the most popular models which are offered at full prices despite spending more time in the lots.