Every used-EV conversation starts the same way: they're still too expensive. And the raw numbers back it up — across our listings, electric cars average about $4,000 more than gas ones. Case closed, right?
Not quite. That $4,000 gap is mostly an illusion, and it took about ten minutes of filtering to see why.
The gap is age, not electricity
Used EVs on the market are simply younger. They average a full year newer than the gas cars sitting next to them, with about 25,000 fewer miles on the clock. Of course they cost more — you're comparing a newer car to an older one.
So I narrowed it down: same model years, same mileage band, nothing else changed.
| Fuel type | Average price | Avg miles | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hybrid | $27,153 | 62,807 | 380 |
| Electric | $26,393 | 63,832 | 291 |
| Gas | $25,362 | 65,421 | 7,947 |
Once age and mileage are held steady, the electric premium collapses to about $1,000 — roughly 4%. Hybrids actually sit highest of the three. The four-thousand-dollar story was never about the drivetrain.
Where the real money is
Four percent on the sticker is close to noise — you'd swing that much between two listings of the same gas car. The costs that actually separate these two are the ones nobody puts in the ad.
Fuel is the obvious one, and it's worth checking what a comparable gas car burns before assuming: our fuel economy rankings put the efficient end of the gas market closer to hybrids than most people expect. Insurance runs the other way — EVs cost more to repair, which shows up in premiums, and you can see how much on our insurance cost data.
Then there's the one that dwarfs both: depreciation. Used EV values have moved violently over the past two years, and a car that loses value fast can wipe out every gallon you saved. Worth understanding how depreciation actually works before you commit either way.
My read
Stop treating the purchase price as the argument. On a like-for-like basis it barely exists. Buy the EV if the running costs and your daily distance make sense, not because you found a four-thousand-dollar gap that turns out to be a mirage.
And whichever you pick, run the VIN first — battery-related recalls on used EVs are common enough that skipping this step is a genuinely bad idea.
Frequently asked questions
Are used electric cars more expensive than gas cars?
Barely. At the same model years and mileage, electric averages about $1,000 more than gas — roughly 4%. The larger raw gap exists because used EVs on the market are about a year newer with 25,000 fewer miles.
Are used hybrids cheaper than used EVs?
No. On our listings hybrids average slightly higher than electric cars at matched age and mileage, at around $27,150.
What costs more to own, an EV or a gas car?
Fuel favours the EV, insurance and repair costs favour the gas car, and depreciation has been the biggest single factor for used EVs in recent years.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
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