Driving the news: Plug, a marketplace for buying and selling used EVs, has raised $20 million in Series A funding from new and existing investors.
For context: Jimmy Douglas, founder and CEO of Plug, said that the used car market is tracking to become a $1 trillion industry by the end of the decade.
“And as we get closer to that milestone, the percentage represented by electric vehicles will be growing exponentially,” Douglas told CDG News. “It's an under-appreciated segment of the market, in that electric vehicles are a fundamentally different asset.”
Plug erases the guesswork in appraising used EVs for dealers that may have too many to sell, a mismatched marketplace or just prefer the comfort of jostling a radiator or spark plugs during the process.
Between the lines: About 1.1 million used EV lease returns, worth an estimated $3 billion, are projected to hit dealer lots in the next three years, Douglas explained.
“Dealers will be on the receiving end of that and have to contend with it,” Douglas said.
Plug’s marketplace calculates wholesale values and cash offers based on its “proprietary insights, real-time market and pricing signals, battery health intelligence and VIN-level vehicle data.”
Dealers can also use Plug’s Trade Desk product to simply type in a VIN number and get an offer/valuation within about 10 minutes, with no obligation to accept the offer. Plug's data helps dealers get the highest rates possible.
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By the numbers: Since launching in 2024, Plug has facilitated more than $60 million in used EV sales and sold more EVs in the fourth quarter last year than it did in all of 2024.
Douglas said he wants to drive Plug to increase its transaction volume by 100X over the next three years.
The new investment will help Plug expand what it offers in many ways, including increasing its supply pipeline and creating in-house, proprietary technology to help evaluate EVs.
The signal: Dealers fearing the forecasted pileup of used EVs in the next few years could benefit from companies such as Plug. And investors are noticing. “Venture capitalists are always looking for disruptors in colossal markets,” Douglas said.
