US used EVs averaged $579 more than petrol cars in September 2026

The same report showed used EV prices rose $2,896, or 9.8%, from September 2025, while used petrol prices rose $90. A year earlier, used EVs averaged $2,227 less than petrol cars, so relative pricing moved $2,806 in twelve months. The year-over-year moves matter more than the gap itself. One side of the market rose while the other stayed flat, and that divergence produced the crossover.

The comparison covered more than 1.5 million used vehicles aged one to five years. That is a large sample but skews toward recent model years, so it does not describe the whole used market. The organization that produced the price study was not clearly identified, and the report did not give a fuller methodology or a named spokesperson.

What the figures show

The $579 gap is about 1.8% of the petrol-car average. It reverses a long-standing pattern in which electric models sold at a discount once they left the showroom. The headline called it the first time used EVs topped petrol cars nationwide. That claim was not independently established, the report said.

The figures cover one month, so they cannot show whether the premium holds in October or November. It is also unclear whether the averages weight cheap and expensive models equally, and whether luxury EVs pull the EV average up more than premium petrol cars lift the petrol average. Both choices can move a headline average by hundreds of dollars, and the gap is only $579.

Why the flip matters

The price flip comes against a history of faster EV depreciation. iSeeCars' five-year study, published in March 2026 and tracking March 2025 to February 2026, found EVs lost 57.2% of their value, against 41.8% for the average vehicle, about 15 percentage points faster. Hybrids lost 35.4%, a 21.8 percentage point gap against EVs.

AAA's 2026 Your Driving Costs study put compact crossover EV depreciation at $5,298 a year, against $3,568 for a petrol car and $3,845 for a hybrid. AAA linked part of the gap to the repeal of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit and sharper secondary-market drops.

Demand also rose. InsideEVs, citing Cox Automotive's EV Market Monitor, reported a record 47,862 used EVs changed hands in September 2026, up 12.3% from August and 21.2% from a year earlier. MarketWatch reported Manheim data showing used EV sales up 21% in September from a year earlier.

Wholesale prices for used EVs rose 10.5% year on year in July, while used compact cars rose just over 4%, marketplace.org reported.