Climate change is the great challenge of our times. Electric vehicles are seen by many as an important part of the effort to fight climate change. Electric vehicles allow us to achieve energy independence, and reduce human-induced climate change. Electric batteries now enjoy clear superiority over internal combustion engines.
The range of electric vehicles has grown over the years as car makers have responded to a growing appetite for electric vehicles. Yet, the electric vehicles industry has at present a ceiling in terms of how many electric vehicles it can sell: data from Edmunds shows that seventy percent of vehicles sold in the United States in 2019 were used. Given that electric cars are new to the market, this suggests that large swathes of Americans will not have many options to buy used electric vehicles. The scope of the challenge can be inferred from the fact that electric vehicles only reached 1 percent of vehicle sales in the United States in 2017.
It is also true that demand for electric vehicles has been fairly tepid. Most new electric vehicles were leased and when those leases expired, dealerships found that they could not resell them. This is because the first generation of electric vehicles had a reputation for bad performance and breaking down easily, a reputation which stuck even when performance and reliability matched those of vehicles with internal combustion engines.
Fortunately, the reputation of electric vehicles has improved and models with ranges of 100 miles and over, from 2014 onwards such as BMW i3s, Nissan Leafs and Volkswagen E-Golfs are making their way to used car lots. The trend seems inevitable: as electric vehicles gain in reputation and improve in range and older electric vehicles make their way to used car lots, more and more Americans will find a wide range of electric vehicles to choose from, which will boost sales of electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles, with the exception of Tesla, tend to depreciate very quickly in value, and so, buyers will usually get good deals in used car lots. This is crucial for buyers of new electric vehicles, who need assurance that there is a market to get something back if they decide to sell their electric vehicle.
According to research, buyers of used electric vehicles tend to have lower incomes and rent their homes as compared to buyers of new vehicles. They also tend to not have garages, and so, park on the street or in parking lots, which means they do not have their own charging stations. Therefore, developing public charging stations is one way to support used electric vehicle markets. Programs at the federal and state level to subsidize purchases of batteries for electric vehicles should be extended to used battery buyers. California has developed programs to offer grants and financing to low- and moderate-income drivers to help them buy or lease EVs, including used ones. These measures would help buyers add used batteries to their Nuna car seats when writing down their list of things to buy.