USA Today frequently picks up stories about the top three selling items in some category for the current year. Among the items they surveyed this year was expected depreciation of 2013 automobiles. They used numbers generated from KBB (the Kelley Blue Book Reports) and considered a projection to value after five years. BTW, Kelley Blue Book is a fairly authoritative source for data on car sales.
USA Today took the data, and ran an article about the models that hold their value the best, but, in addition, asked KBB for the information on the vehicles that are projected to hold their value the worst.
The bottom three are all electrics. Probably the biggest reason is that the parameters of the study compared the projected market value of all cars to the sticker (Monroney) price, That sticker price is the window price, and few cars are sold for full list price. In addition, most EVs are sold to owners who factor into their purchase price state rebates ($4,000 in Illinois) and tax credits ($7,500 US tax credit) which brings the EV price down by a big percentage. KBB data did not factor in rebates or tax credits, making the full sticker price (on the Monroney sticker) much higher than the actual acquisition cost for EV's.
The USA Today (not my first choice for news as it seldom goes into much depth) actually flushes out several additional factors that may have affected these numbers. I would strongly encourage you to read the original online article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/11/19/worst-2014-cars-for-depreciation/3637497/ The original article on KBB.com about the best resale value awards is at:
http://www.kbb.com/new-cars/best-resale-value-awards/?r=899469691470857500I think it is important that EV enthusiasts understand why these numbers are projected, as there is a strong possibility that your neighbor down the street who is considering an EV is going to ask you about resale value after hearing about this.
