Tesla (TSLA) used car prices have crashed $18,000 since their peak six months ago, bringing a new level of affordability to the electric car brand.
Most car buyers can’t afford a new car and turn to the used car market, which is a critical part of the auto industry.
When it comes to electrification, we always focus on the new car market since that’s what is needed to transition the industry, and it’s also what feeds the electric used car market, which is still a pretty young one.
The Tesla used car market specifically is interesting in the US since it is fairly large – thanks to the fact that Tesla has been owning a majority of the EV market in the country for years.
Over the last few years, as Tesla increased its new car prices, Tesla used car prices have also been rising fast.
At one point last year, used Model Y prices went out of control and started to sell for more money than new Model Y vehicles.
But used prices finally started to come down in December as Tesla started to offer discounts at the end of the quarter.
They have continued to come down over the last month and they have crashed over the last few weeks after Tesla implemented massive price cuts throughout its entire lineup and the new federal EV tax credit came into effect.
According to CarGurus data compiled by Charlie Bilello, Tesla used car prices have now crashed $18,000 from their high in July:
To be fair, the entire used car market is also down over the same period, but nowhere near Tesla’s level.
Used car market prices are down less than 2% over the last 30 days while Tesla’s used car prices are down over 8%. It is even more pronounced over a 90-day period where average used car prices are down 5.5% compared to Tesla’s being down 17.7%
Here are all the price movements from used Tesla models:
| Model | Avg Price | Last 30 days | Last 90 Days | Year-over-Year |
| Tesla Model 3 | $40,386 | -8.32% | -18.97% | -20.39 |
| Tesla Model S | $53,304 | -7.16% | -16.72% | -19.96% |
| Tesla Model X | $71,779 | -7.18% | -15.65% | -14.55% |
| Tesla Model Y | $54,930 | 7.56% | -16.70% | -18.25 |
| Tesla Brand | $49,697 | -8.33% | -17.67% | -16.77% |
While the prices have come down significantly, the vehicles are still holding their value fairly well compared to new models.
Nonetheless, we are now seeing a new level of affordability in the used Tesla car market that wasn’t there for a long time.
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