Charged and almost ready –what is holding back the resale market for battery electric vehicles?

Résumé:

We study the market for used battery electric vehicles (BEVs) utilizing vehicle registration microdata for all new and used vehicles registered in the U.S. for model years 2010-2022 and establish two stylized facts: 1) BEVs enter the used market at the slowest rate compared to any other powertrain technology, and 2) BEVs are driven significantly less than vehicles featuring other powertrain technologies. Why is the used vehicle market not more effective in transmitting the new powertrain technology? Our model of registration counts suggests that lower usage can explain from 10-30 percent of the differential rates of transition from new to used vehicle status between BEVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. This suggests a large role for other factors outside the scope of this paper, such as driver characteristics.