Tesla Model 3 Is the Quickest-Selling Used Car in the U.S. Telling Us Two Things

According to ev-volumes.com, PHEVs and BEVs accounted for 2.5 percent of global sales in 2019.

The EV revolution is happening, but despite what some people hope and others fear, it won't happen overnight. And while that might not be great for the environment, it's definitely a good thing for its long-term sustainability because as any holiday showed Tesla owners, we sure don't have the right infrastructure in place just yet.

It's no surprise, then, that the demand for battery-powered cars is at an all-time high. Sure, the global health crisis has put a dent in the growth curve, but things will pick up quickly, no question about it. With the number of EVs on the streets growing steadily, the natural consequence is a bustling used electric car market as well.

We won't talk about volumes this time because the EV-to-ICE ratio should be similar here to that in the segment of the new cars, but rather how much time they spend on the virtual shelf. A recent study conducted by iSeeCars.com that analyzed over nine million transactions between March and June 2020 showed that, on average, a Tesla Model 3 spent there 40 days fewer than any other car.

According to the study's findings, the average selling time was 69 days, but Tesla's cheapest offering only needed 29 days to find a new owner. That made it the quickest-selling second-hand car in the US. The other Tesla models, the S and the X, were also below average with 51 days for the former and 47 for the latter.
This impressive result for the Model 3 tells us two things:

#1.The Tesla Model 3 still isn't cheap enough. The advertised price of $35,000 sounded like a bargain, but it's still more than some people can afford. Or maybe they don't find the entry-level version appealing enough and would rather buy a used one that's more capable for the same price. Either way, EVs haven't reached that pricing level yet where people feel comfortable, but they're getting close.

#2.The supply isn't meeting the demand. Despite Tesla's efforts to ramp up production, the world is still hungry for more. With plants active in the U.S. and China, there are still large parts of the world where Teslas are hard to come by. However, the used Model 3s are selling like hot cakes even in the US, meaning the market could swallow even more if Tesla were able to build them. With new plants underway both in the States and Europe, it looks like this theory will soon be put to the test. And with other manufacturers boosting their EV volumes as well, we're definitely looking at an important point for the electric movement.