Trading in secondhand electric or hybrid models rose to 47,000 units last year, the organization’s data shows.
You could see — and actually feel — that rising level of interest in the pre-owned sector at CADA’s packed conference earlier this month in Haikou, a city with typically tropical temperatures on the southern Hainan Island.
Even with more than 270 million vehicles in circulation, China has long lagged behind developed markets on used-vehicle trading.
There’s also previously been a cultural factor too, with the purchase of a new car seen as a visible indicator of social status.
Those barriers are fast falling away.
At its Haikou conference, CADA launched tools to help dealers accurately value secondhand electric models.
Li Auto’s lineup of extended range electric vehicles retained the most value after a year, and can recoup almost 80 percent of the original sticker prices, Pan Lei, an official with Beijing Jingzhengu, a company specializing in appraisals for the used car industry, told the conference.
Tesla’s Model 3 and Xpeng’s P7 are the most popular used-car choices among mid-sized vehicles, while the budget SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co.’s Hongguang Mini is also holding value.
Those high valuations are enough to persuade Tony Xie, a Haikou resident who’s thinking about swapping his gas-powered black Toyota Camry for a zero-emissions vehicle, that used electric models are well worth considering.