The Truth Behind Tesla Trade-Ins: Debunking the Myths

Recently, EV skeptics celebrated data from Edmunds suggesting that over 50% of Tesla buyers were trading in their EVs for gas cars. However, there’s a significant issue with that statistic: it’s not entirely accurate. In fact, it’s far from a complete picture.

Edmunds is a highly reputable source for new car transaction data and car testing data, and we rely on their insights regularly. However, their sales data has a core limitation: it comes from traditional car dealerships and only covers trade-ins.

As EIC Patrick George explained in a recent story, anyone familiar with Tesla knows why this data can’t fully capture Tesla owner behavior. Tesla doesn’t operate through traditional dealerships. Instead, Tesla sells its vehicles through directly owned company stores, which aren’t included in Edmunds’ dataset. This means the sample misses Tesla owners who switch to new Teslas, as well as those who replace their cars with Rivians, Lucids, or even VinFasts, all of which are sold outside of dealer networks.

A new video from our friends at EV Buyers Guide expands on this intuition, showing data from S&P Global that captures a broader section of the market. This data uses new vehicle registration information along with data about when a car is no longer registered to an address, providing a more comprehensive picture of the market. It includes Tesla shoppers who buy another Tesla, those who have their cars totaled and get something else without trading in, and those who sell or buy their next vehicle privately.

In short, this is the full picture, and it’s much rosier for EV fans. The first thing that stands out is how much Edmunds misses by not including Tesla’s store data. A whopping 70% of Tesla owners simply get another Tesla, an incredible loyalty figure. Another 10% buy other EVs, with Rivian winning 9.8% of those customers who switch.

Only 13% of buyers traded their Teslas in for gas cars. Of the remaining buyers, 4% get hybrids, 2% get plug-in hybrids, and 1% get diesels.

This is a far cry from the 51% figure suggested by the Edmunds data. It also includes buyers switching to brands like Ram or Aston Martin, which don’t really make the same types of vehicles that Tesla does.

However, there’s a caveat to this data that makes it worth watching the whole video. As Alex explains, the vast majority of Tesla sales have happened in the last few years, as the brand has transitioned from a niche player to a dominant juggernaut. This may have a unique effect on the data, as Alex explains.

Despite the data’s limitations, one thing is clear: most Tesla buyers aren’t going back to gas cars. Don’t get it twisted.

=====

Source: InsideEVs