It feels a bit half-hearted to say that the EV market is about to get weird, mostly because it’s already become weird. Tax credits are gone, new choices are thinning a touch, nobody cares about the Cybertruck anymore, and used EVs are generally getting relatively cheap. Maybe too cheap for some owners’ liking, as several EVs failed to sell the other day on Cars & Bids.
See, Cars & Bids isn’t a normal used car classifieds site, it’s an auction site where bidders compete by throwing bands. When does it end? Sometimes it ends when one bidder runs out of Benjamins to swing around, but other times it ends when the last bid doesn’t hit reserve. Traditionally, cars at auction carry a reserve price, a secret floor price that the seller and auction company agree to. The amount’s not publicly disclosed, and if bidding crosses the mark, it’s game on. If bidding doesn’t reach the reserve price, the seller keeps the car. While a reserve prevents a seller from signing over a title while seeming unhappy about the sale price, multiple cars not reaching reserve is generally a sign of choppy waters ahead.
In this case, we have three late-model electric vehicles, all of which failed to meet reserve on Tuesday. While it seems the would-be buyers of these machines are out of luck, the fact that none of these things sold points toward a larger, emerging pattern in the marketplace.
Let’s start with the most popular car that failed to sell, a 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT. Sure, it’s in a great shade of Grabber Blue and only shows 5,051 miles on the clock, but it was a no-sale at a high bid of $31,500. The Carfax is clean, the car itself presents well, but even at 47.7 percent of sticker price, no dice. The market just didn’t bite the seller’s reserve.
Looking at comparable examples in the open marketplace, $31,500 seems about fair value. For instance, here’s a 2023 Mustang Mach-E GT with 6,822 miles on it listed for $31,416 in the same state as the Grabber Blue car. Sure, the lower mileage on the Cars & Bids example is worth something, but not enough to go above and beyond the five-percent buyer’s premium.
Next up, it’s a 2025 Lucid Air Touring, a posh dual-motor electric sedan rated for a bladder-busting 431 miles of range. It’s well-specced with $2,500 spent on upgraded advanced driver assistance, $3,000 spent on the Comfort and Convenience pack for niceties like window shades, soft-close doors, and a heated steering wheel, and $2,750 spent on massaging ventilated front seats. All-in, this electric luxury sedan cost its first owner $94,500 before tax, but one year and 8,400 miles later, it can’t bring in more than 56 percent of the original purchase price. The high bid came in at $53,500, and it simply didn’t meet reserve.
Admittedly, this one’s a bit hard to value considering it’s so recent and has such little mileage on it, but it’s historically not surprising that the market has spoken on previously listed examples. This highly-optioned 2023 Lucid Air Touring sold on Cars & Bids back in 2024 for $50,500 in a deal reached after the hammer dropped and the reserve wasn’t met. Sure, it had 17,500 miles on the clock, but supply was also tighter in 2024.
Finally, there’s this 2023 Rivian R1S Adventure Edition loaded up with the quad-motor setup and large battery pack. Even though Rivian’s R1 series of vehicles has received a significant tech update since 2023, these first-series quad-motor models are still unbelievably quick. Yet, with 19,800 miles on the clock, this one failed to hit its reserve with a high bid of $54,500. One commenter noted that this example was previously listed on the Rivian forums for $68,000, so is this just a case of a seller thinking their vehicle is worth more than it actually is?
Well, yeah, all of these are. While auctions—especially record-setting ones—aren’t always indicative of broader trends, they show what a set of buyers is willing to pay for a particular vehicle in a particular time period. You might see comparable examples listed for more on typical classified ad sites, but those are just asking prices. They aren’t necessarily indicative of final sale prices.
It’s no secret that we’ve moved into a relatively cool EV market. Models like the Ford F-150 Lightning, Volkswagen ID.Buzz, Kia EV4, and Chevrolet Brightdrop have either been put on hiatus, delayed, or cancelled altogether. Federal tax credits are gone, and at the same time, EV sentiment is weakening. According to AAA studies, in 2023, 25 percent of individuals surveyed said they were either likely or very likely to buy a battery electric vehicle. By 2025, that figure had dropped to 16 percent, while the number of undecided respondents fell from 24 percent to 21 percent. This last point is especially important for the second-hand market, because when it comes to selling quickly, desirability is pretty much everything.
At the same time, we’re about to see a flood of EVs in the secondhand marketplace. We’re now about three years removed from the December 2022 decision to apply a $7,500 federal tax credit to EV leases, and that had a profound effect on the EV market. While the proportion of new vehicles acquired on lease fell to near-record lows over the course of the chip shortage, this tax credit decision supercharged EV leases in 2023. According to JD Power, “Lease volumes for new EVs surged 355% throughout 2023.” With an average lease term historically hovering around 36 months, we’re very much in a buyer’s market for second-hand EVs. Expect pricing to respond accordingly.
Are these no-sales exclusively an EV phenomenon? No. Pretty much every day, a variety of cars fail to sell on digital auction platforms for a variety of reasons. Maybe the car itself is relatively unpopular, maybe the example itself isn’t that nice, maybe a particular seller’s expectations just aren’t realistic. However, with these recent EVs in particular, there appears to be a pattern and credible data to support falling prices. The next few years are going to be a great time to buy a second-hand EV, and if you already own a battery-powered vehicle, maybe just hold onto it. It’s perfectly good everyday transportation, and the longer you hold onto it and drive it, the less painful potential losses may be.
Top graphic image: Cars & Bids
