Which Used Nissan Leaf Prices Are increasing and Which Ones Are Not

A day or so ago I wrote a story that describes the market forces that are pushing up the Nissan Leaf Electric car prices in the USA. You can read that article here: http://www.torquenews.com/3618/used-nissan-leaf-prices-going-up. That is not the case for every Nissan Leaf. Here is why.

3 Types of Used NIssan Leafs That Won't See Price Increase

The cars that are shipped overseas are a specific subset of the total class of Nissan Leaf’s. The first issue for the overseas market is that all the battery bars must be lit. The battery capacity health is a big factor. If you lost a capacity bar, your car is not likely to be seeing price increases because your battery health is suspect.

The second group of cars that won’t be seeing price increases are cars with higher than average miles on them. This is really an assessment of the battery health as well. The feeling here is that the more miles you have on an EV the less miles you have left on the original battery pack. Mind you I think this is a valid assumption but keep in mind that the Prius Hybrid cars with the Nickel Metal Hydride chemistry have cars going over 200,000 miles on them with the original 1 kw hybrid battery in them.

The last group that won’t likely be seeing price increases is the 2011 and 2012 versions of the car. Starting with the 2013 version of the car the battery pack was changed and given more overall range and was a major improvement. So the 2011 and 2012 cars are not as sought after for export to other counties.

So Which Used Leafs Will Increase in Price?

Therefore, there are versions of the car that will NOT likely see price increases, but others definitely are seeing increases.

With the recent price increases for fuel the market price for used Prius hybrid cars has also seen a notable increase in value. I own three of these Gen II Prius cars and love them. I’ve been waiting for the Chevy Bolt, and Model 3 Tesla and once they are both here to compare, I’ll be looking at selling the Prius cars and getting the Bolt of Model 3 in probably a year or so.