Used Teslas Are Getting More Expensive While Other EVs Get Cheaper

So weird, I thought demand was low and they depreciated to dirt cheap🫩

Auto-steer, formally known as Autopilot is why used Tesla’s are going up. Also lease prices have sky rocketed on new ones. Used is the way.

Yeah what happened, I thought depreciation was a massive thing on these ?

I'm guessing it's a temp spike for used with auto stuff?

It’s not due to anything positive, actually the exact opposite. It’s because they are paywalling a basic feature (auto steer). Causing used cars with this feature to have a higher used value

Locking basic lane keep behind a paywall is why.

Just bought a 2023 model 3 rwd for 20500, 46000 miles and I thought it was a pretty good deal tbh. It's HW3 but still has the Ryzen processor

A used Tesla has all the features that are being locked in a subscription for new vehicles, so more incentive to buy used.

Yes but it seems to flatten out pretty quickly. Like the S drops from like 100k new to like 60k off the lot but 4 years later will still be 45k

For everyone who didn't read the article and is saying it's due to the Autopilot change: >It reported last week that **since the end of the federal EV tax credit on Sept. 30, 2025, until January**, used Tesla prices had increased an average of 4.3% [...] It helps to read the article.

So what’s the resell value of paid FSD cars since it’s gone

Used models are a tad more desirable because Tesla just discontinued the base level Auto Pilot on all new models, forcing you to pay $100/month for the feature (included now only as part of the Full Self driving package) That and the new car EV credit went away, putting upward pressure on EV pricing

Depreciation has always been wildin with Tesla’s. Pre-3 days, appreciation was pretty good due to limited availability, and software updates improving the vehicle. But now- my 2019 S 100D is worth essentially the same as when I bought it 2 years ago.

The article you are commenting on lists several reasons why used Teslas are holding value better than the competition and Autopilot is not listed among them.

Seems like you didn’t read the article. Depreciation is a large factor, just not as much for Tesla.

Don’t want to read the article and just making up your own reasons?

Nope. Now try reading the article.

And autopilot comes standard.

That seems to be mostly a US trend, the massive depreciation never really happened in Canada on the decent models. I suspect due to decent EV adoption/interest and we have a much larger urban population.

Love it!

I read the article….I still believe Autopilot is the reason.

I think the paywall was just instituted like a month or two ago. Hard to find cars that only have a month between purchase and resale, but I'll bet we will see a lower price - $100/mo vs free for a very nice feature is the motivator. Market will determine value but I love it and would definitely pay at least $500 more to not have the subscription fee.

Not all used, only ones that leverage FSD hardware without having FSD paid for already. Older ones with just "autopilot" are grandfathered in as well.

You seem really invested in this … Elon alt?

I read the article, guess what? Autopilot is still the reason. But kudos to you to think everyone needs to read the article that clearly doesn’t mention what should have been mentioned. To be clear, I’m actually in the belief that it was the right decision to remove autopilot to gain more FSD subscribers, but only in countries that have FSD.

Do you think everyone in October, November, and December of 2025 just... predicted the future?

"autosteer"

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Autopilot was discontinued 2026-01-23. The article says *through* January (presumably 2026). That leaves 8 whole days for the Autopilot change to effect used sales. What's more likely? New Teslas getting $7,500 more expensive on Oct. 1 contributed to a significant used car price increase over the following months or the removal of part of Autopilot made used prices spike over 8 days?

The article is wrong.

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>The $7500 has nothing to do with it. All EV’s had that and they are not increasing in values. It’s specific to Tesla. Almost every other manufacturer lowered prices after the loss of the credit. Tesla didn't. Used prices absolutely are related to the corresponding new price. If a new price is cheaper, say by $7,500, then used prices will have to drop to be competitive. If new prices are higher, say by $7,500, then used prices can rise and still be competitive. You're grasping at straws *for the time frame of the article*. The Autopilot change will have some effect on used prices *after the time frame mentioned in the article*, but I think it will be modest. Most buyers aren't going to understand the nitty-gritty.

Idk I just picked up a 2023 RWD Model 3 with 36k miles for 21k after my 2021 model 3 battery died (RIP Queen of Hearts). Has the Ryzen processor and HW3. Pretty good deal I’d say.

There is absolutely no way it’s because of Autopilot when there’s a $7,500 difference in price before and after the tax credit expired. I cannot fathom how one would give Autopilot that much influence on price.

I would pay all cash if they give auto pilot / auto steer or whatever that moron wants to call it for free…. Just like how they used to

Great retort

Tesla calls it autopilot.

Sweet. I got the seeet spot timing with our Teslas.  Got the tax credit twice and got the .9 interest rate.

Isn’t Canada famous for not being very urban?

In hindsight probably the wrong reasoning. What I should have said is that our metropolitan areas are much more dense leading to shorter journeys which are ideal for EVs.

Tesla now calls it autosteer with the discontinuation of autopilot. Stay tuned for that change in an upcoming software update.

It doesn't drop 40k off the lot. There's a big drop in some years due to hardware changes

Ah, well my first comment about depreciation was sarcasm because it’s all our media like to spout, that teslas aren’t worth anything

Try having an independent thought. The article presents good theories. I presented my own. Nobody knows with certainty how the market works.

That’s a great deal. Make sure to log into the service software prior to warranty expiry and document anything that’s in there. Source: me being out $3,200 for a repair that should have been under warranty.

My theories are the following: Tesla has a charging network all across the US and this is what is inviting when it comes to owning a Tesla vs other EVs. Yes, you can charge at tesla chargers with other EVs but now you have to pay extra fees and also buy adapters if your car isnt NACS compatible. Tesla offers a more robust autopilot/fsd option that has been advertised heavily and showcased. Tesla sells cars directly and not through third party dealerships like other brands so they are in charge of pricing and there are no recovered costs like how dealerships operate. Dealerships tend to sell one car for more and then they have room to sell another car for less later. They operate on overall profits on vehicles sold versus trying to make sure each car they sell is highly profitable. Tesla has become the new Prius in namesake, when people talk about EVs they talk about Teslas. In the past before Tesla everyone called EVs priuses and now that has switched to Teslas. Tesla has the majority marketshare of the EV market which makes consumers trust the brand more. Tesla operates on a low inventory of vehicles and build vehicles on order rather than car makers who build a bunch and send them to dealerships. This means there may be wait times for Teslas which people are put off by and if they want a Tesla now they have to buy from inventory or used.

Can you go into more detail here? Does just opening the service menu already tell you things that are wrong with the car?

Misnomer. Canada actually has a rural population percentage just slightly less than the US. +80% live in cities. Strange for a country that’s so massive in terms of landmass, but also keep in mind that something close to 90% of the Canadian population lives within 150 miles of the US, and most of that is within 50 miles of the US.

Electricity is very cheap in 49th contiguous, but very expensive in most of the mainland

Correct, in EU as part as the 2026.2.9 Autopilot naming update: This change only updates the name of certain features and text in your vehicle, and does not change the way your features behave. Navigate on Autopilot has been renamed to Navigate on Autosteer • FSD Computer has been renamed to Al Computer.

Yeah I’d like to know the same.

Tesla's are everywhere around where I'm at, its just reached that point of saturation. And this isn't some massive major downtown, but a suburb outside of Atlanta that's mostly rural once you get a few miles out. Even here we have two superchargers in our county, and a dealership. That being said, you could even pick up a HW 2.5 and do the upgrade to HW3 and get a pretty good bargain for an extra $1000, and really save some money, possibly getting an X or S model at rock bottom prices.

I haven't followed this at all. Does this mean that the lane assist + cc that came free of the previous models are no longer available for free. And getting that feature costs 7,500 dollars? That's good if youre already an owner I guess ,but that definitely makes it hard to justify getting a new Tesla once it's time for a switch.

After stacking $11750 in state and federal incentives on mine 18mo ago, and after 20k miles, it's still worth what I paid for it.

Everyone saying it because of AP which doesn't add up. I think its because there is much more overall value vs the rest.

I own a 2022 Leaf long range and a 2024 model 3. The leaf was $11400 OTD with 32k miles, less than a third of its new cost ($9000 in incentives). Currently worth more than I paid for it due to the $4000 tax credit expiring. The Tesla was ~$34k OTD, 1.99% 72mo, $11750 in incentives. Worth basically what I paid for it 20k miles ago. The "Teslas depreciate like crazy" is no longer the case. Also, I'm pretty sure most of us plan on driving our Teslas into the ground, so it doesn't really matter. Someone posted yesterday that their 2022 model 3 hit 200k miles with only 10% battery degradation.

Go to software, hold down your finger on the model name until there's a visual pulse. Service menu password opens up. Password is "service". This opens the service menu, look through the notifications for all or service, not just customer. Will show you things the car has flagged but are not necessarily 'essential' so don't show up as a regular service notification

No. All that changed is autopilot is now called "tacc +autosteer" . Everyone saying otherwise is concerned with language on order pages and cars that currently have FSD trials active with the "autosteer" option removed/greyed out.

Hopefully good for my resell value... I like my Tesla as it's my first EV, but might look at alternatives in the future.

Ah nice, I didn't realize it takes notes of things like that automatically, super useful, thanks!

> Autopilot is still the reason. Not in the data timeline. People would have had to know months in advance, and react months in advance.

> I think the paywall was just instituted like a month or two ago. so too recently to matter for data about months before that ended about a month ago

> I presented my own. You could be right for more recent data. Not data that ends right when it happened.

I'm having trouble understanding this. Can you elaborate? >so too recently to matter for data about months before that ended about a month ago

Yes. Tesla "hides" many of the warnings and issues with the car unless they are catastrophic to driving. In my case, my heat pump was failing, but the car never warned me under it actually self-destructed, sending metal shards all throughout the coolant system a few weeks after warranty was up. I went into the service menu, and the coolant system had been throwing red-level errors for WEEKS, but none to me, the driver. Because I didn't raise it with Tesla before the warranty lapsed, they wouldn't fix it, even though it showed the problem was earlier.

Take pictures of any errors, they delete themselves after a while.

Sounds like a small claims court would award you the win on that.

I bought a 2020 Model 3 SR for 19k in June. Only 33k miles on it.

There was also downward pricing pressure to get the price to $25k or less so one could get the used EV credit. This pressure no longer exists.

2023’s are HW4….no?

Model 3 didn't get HW4 until the refresh, which happened on 2024 models. Some 2023 Model Ys got HW4 though

Ok, because I know there is 2023’s with hw4

Possibly from Giga Shanghai, since they got the refresh earlier than Fremont did

Autopilot is autosteer+adaptive cruise control...and you can't use autosteer without adaptive cruise control...therefore, if you're using autosteer you are using autopilot

I paid 38K for that, so yeah - good deal.

Not sure if you’re sarcastic or not Depreciation was only overstated because it’s reported vs MSRP and doesn’t take account the fact that everyone was getting $7,500, more than 10% msrp, off at the time of purchase

> cars that currently have FSD trials active with the "autosteer" option removed/greyed out. Autosteer doesn't exist on the newest US market cars, regardless of FSD status.

Hold on, your battery died? Is that normal? I was under the impression that the 8year battery warranty would still be intact for a 2021... It's only 2026 afterall. Also, I thought the battery was pretty good in the Teslas.

California sued Tesla and was going to prevent sales of Teslas in the state if they didnt rename it. It is no longer called autopilot. Changed the name but it does the same for the most part. Is is now called Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC)

Car was a rental before I bought it and I spent the first year of ownership putting 120 miles on it each day. Not surprised at all its battery died. Was very annoyed it was 11k miles AFTER the warranty expired though.

The autosteer thing happened late Jan. The data stops Jan 31. They'd have the effect of 8 days, out of a sample of 4 months.

Wait, Elon was right??? My 5 year old hw3 model y is now an appreciating asset!!!!! (/s)

I think people are also realising that battery degradation isn’t as bad as some people assumed based on their experiences with phones etc

Very good point! Agree

You haven't heard? Autopilot naming died. decapitated by a truck. had a funeral for a bird.

My 2024 RWD Model 3 has 12K miles on it and it is def not worth 34K. They’re currently selling for around 28-29K on the used market and trade in value is 25K at best.

$34k out the door I paid, including tax on the whole MSRP, order fee, etc. Count out those transaction costs and it's about equal.

Gotcha, so around 30K. That makes more sense. Our second model 3 is a 2026 LR RWD which was 37K OTD and I don’t see that depreciating much the next two yrs either.

You’re partly correct. Not only does the retraction of the EV credit factor in, but the fact that the new Teslas are going backwards in terms of features is also part of it.

No they're not.

Waiting for later this year to buy, should have a flood of leases dumped on the market.

You couldn’t pay me to use autopilot

A 2024 Model Y LR AWD has HW4 and Autopilot. If you can find one on Carmax, there's a higher-than-zero chance the previous owner purchased FSD outright. That could have something to do with it. Source: My friend, who just bought that type of car from Carmax.

Elon needs more bunkers

Are they going to force a name change on airplanes that had this feature for years with very basic algorithms?

You’re getting flayed on that trade in value, my 2022 M3LR would get me $21,000 tomorrow if I took it to Carvana.

Tesla are finally an appreciating asset lol

Really? I am in the category of fools who bought model Y at peak price after waiting for over a year (yes, I got the 3rd row) and then the price dropped by $20k or whatever was the drop. Worst car buy ever. Driving a regret.

Since when does the California government do anything that makes sense?

FSD activated autosteer on my 2026 Y that didn't have it at delivery.

autopilot is most def the reason. we have people at tesla dealership come in asking about autopilot specifically. source: employee

Well it is the best selling ev brand

You can’t trust some of the other companies to support their products long term. Like Ford discontinuing their lighting model, how are you supposed to have confidence in a company like that for a EVs.

Don't forget about inflation. Makes a difference.

https://preview.redd.it/zt96ily14tng1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2272174b1d8ac88ccb4fc3f7174a1eba86a16915 I save a LOT of cars for shits and giggles and its hard to find one of any trim that isnt continuing to decrease in price. Across carfax, auto trader, cars, car gurus, etc. The refresh obviously depreciating slower but they certainly arent going UP in price

Get a lightly used 2026 model from their own inventory. They say right on that site that it has auto-steer included.

That's probably because of the article that appeared in my feed directly above this thread. https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/ford-ceo-admits-mistake-with-evs/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Ford CEO Jim Farley 'absolutely flabbergasted' after ripping apart Tesla: 'We hadn't designed the … cars right'" No shit.

A used 2024 Tesla has the same hw4 as new?