Electric cars the worst for depreciation – while used car values continue to soar

By Jim Bray
April 3, 2025

Can electric cars survive without taxpayer money? Should they?

Subsidies for EV's seem to be on their way out, which suits me just fine; they should sink or swim on their own, like evil gas-powered vehicles have to.

Subsidies or not, if you're thinking of getting an EV and want to keep it for a while, the folks at iSeeCars have some sobering news.

"Electric cars lose more value than any other vehicle type, dropping by nearly 60 percent after 5 years," says a new survey by the group. "This compares to only a 40 percent drop in value for trucks and hybrids, and an industry average of 45.6 percent across all vehicle types"

The survey notes that while the five-year depreciation of EV's is 58.8 per cent, trucks "only" lost value by 40.4 per cent, while SUV's lost nearly half their value (48.9 per cent) and hybrids were "down only" a tad more than as trucks, at 40.7 per cent.

That overall average of 45.6 per cent depreciation this year compares with 38.8 per cent in 2023 and – worse – a whopping 49.6 per cent in 2019. So read that way, the stats may indicate a yoyoing rate of depreciation more than a trend. I guess time will tell.

iSeeCars analyzed over 800,000 five year-old used cars sold between March 2024 and February 2025 to determine the depreciation rates. "Depreciation remains the most expensive aspect of buying a new vehicle," they note, "and the variation between vehicle types and specific models is something consumers should consider when researching their next purchase. The difference between buying a hybrid versus an electric vehicle could be tens of thousands of dollars in lost value."

At the other end of the spectrum, the cars that hold their value the best range from the top performer Porsche 911, with average five-year depreciation of just shy of 20 per cent, through the 718 Cayman (21.8 per cent), Toyota Tacoma (26 per cent), Chevrolet Corvette (27.2) and the Honda Civic at 28 per cent.

Rounding out the top 10 were the Chevrolet Camaro (also 28 per cent), Toyota Tundra (29.1) Ford Mustang (29.2), Porsche 718 Boxster (29.6) and the Toyota Corolla hatchback (30.1 per cent).

Seems that people who like sports cars and/or Toyotas are the winners here, if you can call paying more to buy a used one winning (though it's obviously a win for the original owner when it comes time to sell).

Personally, I find this stat particularly annoying because I love and lust after Porsches, especially the 911 and Cayman. On the other hand, this is yet another reason to hang onto my 20-year-old A4 Avant, which has depreciated about as much as it can already.

Higher end models typically lose more value than mainstream ones, including of course electric vehicles. The top 10 loser models (when it comes to depreciation, anyway) start with the Jaguar I-Pace EV, whose five-year drop amounted to a whopping 72.2 per cent. Tesla's Model S EV lost 65.2 per cent (and now they'll probably lose more because they have swastikas scratched into them), the Nissan Leaf lost 64.1 per cent, Tesla's Model X lost 63.4 per cent and the Cadillac Escalade ESV SUV came in 10th by dropping "a mere" 62.9 per cent in value.

That doesn't mean gas-powered cars get to skate. The vehicle with the second worst five-year depreciating in iSeeCars' survey was the BMW 7 series sedan (67.1 per cent), and also in the top 10 were the Infiniti QX80 (65), Maserati Ghibli (64.7) and the Maserati Levante SUV (63.7).

On the other hand, some used car pricing is actually going the opposite direction. While iSeeCars' latest Used Car Pricing Study found that used EV prices fell 15.1 per cent over the past year, and gasoline and hybrid prices dropped only 0.5 per cent (which could make buying a used electric vehicle a bargain) there are also brands whose used prices are actually going up. They're led by Infiniti (which surprises me, considering Lexus is around), whose average used price in February of this year went up by just over 11 per cent. Lexus did manage a reasonably strong second place at 6.3 per cent, followed by Acura (4.5), Cadillac (4.3) and Toyota (3.3 per cent).

There's a definite Japanese flavour here, of course, with one American brand. Japan also scored a non-premium brand in this category, giving Toyota two of the top five.

Here's a breakdown of the top 10 used models with the biggest price increases over the past year:

1 Infiniti QX60 17.1 per cent

2 BMW 4 Series 15.2 per cent

3 Land Rover Discovery 13.6 per cent

4 Toyota 4Runner 12.7 per cent

5 Porsche 718 Boxster 12.4 per cent

6 Porsche 718 Cayman 10.5 per cent

7 Chevrolet Trax 9.8 per cent

8 Lincoln Navigator 9.3 per cent

9 BMW X1 8.9 per cent

10 Lexus RX 350 7.9 per cent

Buying a used vehicle comes with certain risks, of course. Heck, my A4 just informed me it has an issue with an overheating left rear wheel, brake or something (it's in the shop as I write this, alas). I don't look forward to dropping more money into it, especially since I put nearly 10 grand into it last year, but it's still a bargain compared to a new one that I wouldn't like as much anyway.

Naturally, iSeeCars has also identified the most reliable used cars, ones that combine the lowest prices with the longest remaining lifespans. They analyzed over 700,000 used car sales and odometer readings of over 368 million used cars to figure out which were the best five and 10-year-old cars in categories including most reliable used vehicle overall, most reliable used trucks, SUV's passenger cars and hybrids. Here's a preview of what they discovered:

Best five-Year-Old Used Cars for the Money

1 Honda Fit

2 Volkswagen Passat

3 Buick Encore

4 Kia Rio 5-Door

5 Honda Civic

6 Mazda Mazda3 (hatchback)

7 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

8 Toyota Yaris

9 Toyota Corolla

10 Infiniti Q50

Again, we see the Japanese ruling, with one KIA and, one "domestic" courtesy of GM and your tax dollars that bailed them out.

Domestics score a bit better in the most reliable five-year-old SUV category:

1 Buick Encore

2 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport

3 Honda CR-V

4 Mitsubishi Outlander

5 Toyota RAV4

6 INFINITIQX60

7 Jeep Compass

8 Nissan Rogue

And the most reliable five-year-old used hybrids are:

1 Toyota Prius

2 Toyota Camry Hybrid

3 Ford Fusion Energi

4 Toyota Avalon Hybrid

5 Ford Fusion Hybrid

6 Lexus RX 450h

7 Toyota Highlander Hybrid

8 Lexus RX 450hL

9 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

10 Ford Escape Hybrid

Nice to see Ford on the finally! I like Fords, even though they (like other myopic marques) stupidly dumped their cars except for the Mustang, turning the market over to the non-North American competition who seem to be willing to sell fewer actual cars for a few years until the sales pendulum swings back than to bail out of that market segment altogether. I don't claim to think for these companies; I'm just using – as Rush Limbaugh used to say – intelligence guided by experience, which is all any of us can do regardless of our intelligence and/or experience. So, I could very well have my head where the sun doesn't shine.

But I don't think so.

Anyway, iSeeCars' rankings show there are a few good options for budget-minded new car buyers, especially if they're willing to consider becoming budget-minded used car buyers instead. And if you don't like all the electronic and supposedly safety-related crap being inflicted on today's vehicles, you might like that better anyway, depending on how old and high end you go.