What Cox measured in September
The numbers come from Cox Automotive's EV Market Monitor for September 2026. Volume rose 12.3% month on month to 47,862 units and 21.2% year on year. The 3.3% share of all used car sales is the highest Cox has recorded.
This is US data, and it describes a market shaped by US conditions: the federal tax credit ended in September 2025, fuel economy rules were rolled back, and new-car prices are high. European readers should not read the 3.3% figure as a European number.
The models moving fastest were crossovers. Nissan Ariya sales jumped 42.5% month on month, the Chevrolet Equinox EV 41.9%. Chevrolet overall gained 21.3%, Ford 17.1%. Tesla stayed the largest single brand in the used EV segment.
The price gap narrowed by $555 in a month
Average listed price of a used EV fell 1.8% from August to $36,767. A used combustion car averaged $2,137 less. In August that gap was $2,692, so it closed by $555 in four weeks. Cox calls this a gradual move toward price parity, not parity itself.
Supply tells a similar story. Used EVs sat on dealer lots for 35 days in September, down 16.7% from August. Petrol and other non-electric used cars averaged 46 days. Cars that leave the lot faster are usually cars priced close to what buyers expect.
New EVs went the other way
New EV sales fell 40.7% year on year in September to an estimated 86,632 units. Their share of new-car sales still edged up to 6.5%, because the overall market contracted faster. Average transaction price for a new EV was $55,842.
Cheaper new models exist, but they are not selling in volume. Chevrolet moved 3,866 Bolts in the third quarter, Nissan 634 Leafs. Meanwhile new launches keep arriving at the expensive end, from battery programmes such as Li Auto's 5C cell plans to high-output AWD models like the 515 kW BYD Tang EV filed with Chinese authorities. None of that helps a buyer with $35,000.
A $2,137 premium against fuel savings
Here is where the used EV case stands or falls. Take 12,000 miles a year, a petrol car at 25 mpg and petrol at $3.20 a gallon. That is 480 gallons, or $1,536 a year. An EV at 3.5 mi/kWh uses 3,429 kWh; charged at home at $0.17/kWh that costs $583, so the saving is $953 a year and the $2,137 premium pays back in about 2.2 years.
Charge half of it on public DC instead, at $0.45/kWh, and the annual cost rises to $1,062. The saving drops to $474 and payback stretches to 4.5 years. Run the same arithmetic with your own tariff in our charging cost calculator before you assume the fuel saving is automatic; the savings calculator does the petrol-versus-electric comparison side by side.
One caution on the cost side: the 483 locations in our supercharger database are priced in EUR for European networks, and the cheapest-charging list is built from those tariffs. US electricity prices are a different dataset. Use the European figures for European running costs and nothing else.
What to check before buying a used EV
The September data says demand reacts to price, not to badges. That puts the burden on the inspection. Ask for a battery state-of-health report, not a range claim. Then check real consumption: an older crossover that managed 3.5 mi/kWh when new will not do it at 100,000 miles in January.
Our real-world range calculator uses Bjørn Nyland's measured test results rather than WLTP or EPA figures, so you can see how far a given model actually went in his tests before you compare it with the car in front of you. The EV catalog holds the official specifications for cross-checking.
What Cox says remains open
The report notes that the used market is not big enough to offset the decline in new EV sales on its own, and that EVs still carry a price premium over equivalent combustion cars. Both statements are in the September data: 47,862 used units against 86,632 new ones, and a $2,137 gap that narrowed but did not close.
Source: https://insideevs.com/news/812497/record-used-ev-sales-september-2026/