Plug-in electric vehicles have been on the market long enough to receive market value analysis from the NADA Official Used Car Guide. The numbers so far are looking very good. According to its June edition, the NADA Guide will project the average trade-in values for one-year-old Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt sedans. The Guide will project the average trade-in value for a typically equipped 2011 Nissan Leaf SV at $23,975, or 95% of its sticker price after the $7,500 federal tax credit. The Volt will trade-in for $29,325, or 90% of its trade-in value after the tax credit.
Low supplies and high gasoline prices should keep the market values stable in the near term, an NADA analyst said. The tax credit discount behaves more like a traditional cash incentive versus a finance incentive that you don’t see, according to NADA analyst Maynard Brown. In comparison, a typically equipped 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid has a projected trade-in value of 76% of its price, and a 2011 Toyota Prius is at 88%. The market could change late this year and into next when rental car companies should retire some of their Leafs and Volts, and supply will increase and values would soften.