Consumers shopping used-car lots may notice that electric vehicles are increasingly sporting more affordable price tags.
Even as purchases of new electric vehicles have faltered, used EV sales jumped 27.7% in March from a year earlier and were 53.9% higher than in February, according to the latest EV Monitor from Cox Automotive, a services and software company for the automotive industry.
While it’s hard to tease out how much of the surge in sales is due to consumers shifting to EVs amid higher gas prices, at least one contributing factor is the influx of used EVs hitting dealer lots as leases end this year, giving buyers a greater selection of models.
“Where we had the highest concentration of leasing happen was between the tail end of 2022 and all the way through 2023, and since most leases are three years long, all those cars … are coming back to dealer lots in droves,” said Joseph Yoon, a consumer insights analyst at Edmunds, an auto research site.
The share of EVs accounting for lease returns is expected to jump to 8% in 2026, up from 2% in 2025, according to Edmunds data.
