Used EVs Are Ruining Tesla

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Quick Read

  • A recent analysis reveals that the resale value of a Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) vehicle drops sharply in the first year.

  • The availability of used EVs is a problem for Tesla.

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Used EVs Are Ruining Tesla

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For Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) and other popular electric vehicle (EV) makers, the primary competition is not with one another. It is the used versions of their own cars. One analysis showed that a Ford Mustang Mach-E, which sold for $55,000 new, sold for only $33,000 when it reached its first birthday. It had less than 10,000 miles on its odometer and not a single scratch. Some people who track the car industry say it is awash in used Teslas, which causes the company the same problem.

In a recent study, iSeeCars researchers looked at the price of used cars that were one to five years old. The study covered 1.5 million cars and compared their sales prices in July 2024 to those in July 2025. Across the entire industry (gasoline-powered and EVs), used car prices rose 3.7% between the two periods.

Prices of three Tesla models dropped over 12% year over year, the hardest hit of any models from any brand. The analysis shows the price of a Model X declined 12.1% to $50,392. The price of the Model Y fell 12.3% to $29,141. The price of a Model S also decreased 12.3% to $47,416.

Tesla already has a problem with its new cars. Partially due to price, and partially due to the controversial reputation of founder Elon Musk, Tesla’s market share among new EVs sold in the United States fell below 50% for the first time in the second quarter.

The decline in Tesla’s sales has let some competitors through a door that had previously been shut to them. Ford, GM, and Hyundai/Kia each have close to 10% market share. Granted, GM and Ford have spent tens of billions of dollars to get a small piece of a pie that is no longer growing.

The effects of the cannibalization have not hurt Tesla’s stock price. While it did drop when Musk broke off relations with President Trump in March, the share price is up almost 70% over the past year, while the S&P 500 is only 15% higher.

Musk has managed to offset lackluster sales by promoting the idea that Tesla is more than just a car company. It has evolved into a robotics, AI, and fully self-driving car business. As long as the market is willing to accept that, the used car challenge will not matter much.

Tesla Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025–2030

 

 

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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