In 2023, just 11% of Tesla owners that swapped into something else went back to gas. Yep, 11%, not "more than half" as some reporting has said. Let's dive into the data and see what Edmunds and others got wrong. The key thing about Edmunds' data is that it's collected from dealerships. If you didn't know, Tesla (and others) sell direct. This is critical because a whopping 70% of Tesla owners or lessees that swapped into another car, got another Tesla. What did the rest do? 13% swapped for another EV, 11% went back to gas, 4% opted for a mild or full hybrid, 2% got a PHEV and 1% opted for a diesel. So where does this data come from? It's from S&P Global Mobility, the gold standard for loyalty, sales, and conquest data. They pull all the car registration data every month from every state and crunch the numbers. (Yep, your registration data is far from private.) They match households that dispose of a car (whether that's a trade-in, sale, end of lease, gifted to someone, etc) and then see what those same households buy or lease next. From January 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024 (the extra 2 months ensure that replacements have been captured since sometimes it takes a while to sell a car and replace it, or replace a car and sell your old one) a total of 60,022 Teslas were "disposed" of in the USA. (Industry term.) Of those 60,000 Teslas leaving garages in America, 42,244 new Teslas took their place. What about the rest? 7,710 went back to gas, 6,385 got another EV, 2,344 opted for hybrid power, 946 gave a PHEV a whirl, and 393 opted for a diesel. Unlike some outlets, we need to “qualify” this data with some asterisks. Between 2008 and 2023, 80% of Teslas ever sold in the USA were sold between 2020 and 2023. That’s why the “Teslas disposed of” number seems so low at 60,022, most just aren’t old enough to even be at the end of their lease. Currently some 70%+ of all Teslas on the road are under 4 years old. This means that the Teslas people are getting rid of skew heavily toward Model S, X and early Model 3s. The oldest Model Ys in America today are just over 4 years old. When comparing data, beware that Edmunds does not say whether they combine mild and full hybrids, or mild hybrids with ICE and they don’t mention diesel at all. And there you have it. That’s the full story of Tesla trades.
Being a big fan of the Corvette, I would love to get one of these and take it to the limit.
In 2023, just 11% of Tesla owners that swapped into something else went back to gas. Yep, 11%, not "more than half" as some reporting has said. Let's dive into the data and see what Edmunds and others got wrong.
The key thing about Edmunds' data is that it's collected from dealerships. If you didn't know, Tesla (and others) sell direct. This is critical because a whopping 70% of Tesla owners or lessees that swapped into another car, got another Tesla.
What did the rest do? 13% swapped for another EV, 11% went back to gas, 4% opted for a mild or full hybrid, 2% got a PHEV and 1% opted for a diesel.
So where does this data come from? It's from S&P Global Mobility, the gold standard for loyalty, sales, and conquest data. They pull all the car registration data every month from every state and crunch the numbers. (Yep, your registration data is far from private.) They match households that dispose of a car (whether that's a trade-in, sale, end of lease, gifted to someone, etc) and then see what those same households buy or lease next.
From January 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024 (the extra 2 months ensure that replacements have been captured since sometimes it takes a while to sell a car and replace it, or replace a car and sell your old one) a total of 60,022 Teslas were "disposed" of in the USA. (Industry term.)
Of those 60,000 Teslas leaving garages in America, 42,244 new Teslas took their place. What about the rest? 7,710 went back to gas, 6,385 got another EV, 2,344 opted for hybrid power, 946 gave a PHEV a whirl, and 393 opted for a diesel.
Unlike some outlets, we need to “qualify” this data with some asterisks. Between 2008 and 2023, 80% of Teslas ever sold in the USA were sold between 2020 and 2023. That’s why the “Teslas disposed of” number seems so low at 60,022, most just aren’t old enough to even be at the end of their lease. Currently some 70%+ of all Teslas on the road are under 4 years old. This means that the Teslas people are getting rid of skew heavily toward Model S, X and early Model 3s. The oldest Model Ys in America today are just over 4 years old.
When comparing data, beware that Edmunds does not say whether they combine mild and full hybrids, or mild hybrids with ICE and they don’t mention diesel at all.
And there you have it. That’s the full story of Tesla trades.