The reversal happening right now
Used electric vehicle values in the wholesale market, the price dealers pay each other at auction before a car reaches a lot, fell 4.2% from July to August 2026, Cox Automotive found in its Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. Every other kind of used vehicle fell only 1.1% in the same month. It was the second month running that used electric vehicles fell faster than the rest of the market. In July 2026 used electric vehicle values fell 2.1% against 1.1% for every other vehicle, Cox Automotive reported separately. Used electric vehicles are still up 5% over the past year, more than the 1.4% drop for every other vehicle over the same year, so the latest 2 months are a reversal inside a longer gain, not a full year decline.
Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index figures for mid August 2026, month over month. This is the wholesale market, the price dealers pay each other at auction, not the price a buyer pays.
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| Every vehicle in the index | 1.2 |
| Electric vehicles | 4.2 |
| Every other vehicle | 1.1 |
What happened right after the tax credit ended
The Previously Owned Clean Vehicle Credit cut up to 4,000 dollars, 30% of the sale price, off a qualifying used electric vehicle bought for 25,000 dollars or less, the Internal Revenue Service states. The credit stopped applying to any vehicle acquired after September 30, 2025, so a buyer today gets none of that money. In the 4 months after that date, September 2025 to January 2026, the research firm iSeeCars found the average price of a used electric vehicle other than Tesla fell 3.6%, while the average used gas vehicle fell only 2.0%. The average used Tesla price rose 4.3% over the same months. Used electric vehicles also shrank as a share of the used car market, from 3.5% of 1 to 5 year old used cars sold in September 2025 to 2.8% in January 2026, a 20% drop in that share, iSeeCars found.
iSeeCars average listing prices, September 2025 to January 2026, the 4 months bracketing when the credit stopped applying to any vehicle acquired after September 30, 2025.
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| Used Tesla up 4.3% | 4.3 |
| Other used electric vehicle down 3.6% | 3.6 |
| Used gas vehicle down 2.0% | 2.0 |
Prices then climbed back before slowing again
From January through mid 2026, used electric vehicle prices rose rather than fell, Recurrent Auto found in its own retail listing data. Prices climbed fastest in the cheapest segments, up 9.4% for cars under 20,000 dollars, 6.5% for cars between 30,000 and 40,000 dollars and 5.6% for cars between 20,000 and 30,000 dollars, from January to June 2026. Over 50% of used electric vehicle inventory now sits under 30,000 dollars, Recurrent found. That recovery brought more used electric vehicles onto lots at the same time as more cars are coming off lease. Recurrent projects 500,000 used electric vehicles will come off lease in 2026 and up to 1,000,000 in 2027, as electric vehicles grow from 2% to 8% of all lease returns.
Recurrent Auto retail listing data, January to June 2026, volume weighted across 108 make and model year combinations. The 40,000 to 55,000 dollar segment fell 1.2% and the 55,000 dollars and up segment fell 3.3% over the same months. Both are real and sourced but left off so every bar in this chart reads the same direction, a rise.
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| Under 20,000 dollars | 9.4 |
| 20,000 to 30,000 dollars | 5.6 |
| 30,000 to 40,000 dollars | 6.5 |
Dealers tie the newest drop to supply, not the credit
Neither of the 2 Cox Automotive reports that recorded the July and August declines names the tax credit as a cause. Jonathan Gregory, senior director at Cox Automotive, said this.
Used EVs are still benefiting from that increase, with values up 5% year over year even as the pace of gains has cooled.
Jonathan Gregory, senior director at Cox Automotive. Source 5.
Cox Automotive ties the slowing gains to a growing supply of used electric vehicles coming off lease and to gas prices, which averaged 4.06 dollars a gallon in mid August 2026, up from 3.14 dollars a year earlier.