As interest and sales of used EVs increase, new findings show the vehicles are maintaining 95% of their range after five years.
The details: In its 2026 EV Market and Trends Report, Recurrent, an EV analytics company, found that the average EV maintains 97% of its range after three years and 95% after 5.
The findings arrive as gas prices surge past $4 a gallon, with shoppers increasingly researching used EVs and, in some cases, driving sales higher.
Used EV sales jumped 53.9% between February and March, with 42,924 units sold, according to Cox Automotive’s EV Market Monitor.
Used EV prices, meanwhile, dropped to $34,653, closing to within $1,012 of the average price of ICE vehicles.
“Used EVs are having a moment, and dealers that maybe were less interested in EVs, even with the federal rebates, all of a sudden just can't keep a three-year-old Tesla on their lot, and they can't find enough of them to sell,” Andy Gaberson of Recurrent told CDG.
Recurrent also found that five different brands experienced no apparent range loss over five years of ownership:
Cadillac
Ford
Hyundai
Mercedes
Rivian
Zooming in: Recurrent noted mileage range and battery health differ. But Gaberson said their engineers found the batteries are holding up longer than expected.
“For lay people like me that are just EV owners, the technical health of the battery is a lot less important to me than the range that it’s delivering,” Gaberson said. “The average EV driver like me wants to know that the car that I bought to go on that road trip will still make the same road trip in 3 or 5 years without any issues.”
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Also in the report: Recurrent found that the average range for new EVs is around 325 miles. That’s compared to 293 miles in the 2025 models and to the 261 miles on average for 2020 models.
Software updates and increased efficiencies by OEMs, per Recurrent, are the main drivers of that improvement in range capabilities.
“That’s an 11% gain over last year. I don't want to say it's life-changing, but that's a noticeable distance that people would experience in a daily driver,” Gaberson said.
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