The used car market is doing quite well having benefited from the sudden decline of automobile leases during the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008–2009. Expiring auto leases are a primary source of cars feeding the used car market. Hybrid gas-electric cars are a small subset of the overall used car market, primarily because they are a small part of the overall market. Another reason has to do with the fact that hybrid gas-electric cars need to have new battery systems installed after either five years of use or 100,000 miles, on average. The price of these battery systems, depending on the vehicle, run anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000.

Today’s market size is the estimated number of used hybrid gas-electric vehicles on the U.S. used car market in early 2013.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2013
Market size: 415,000 vehicles
Source: Ann Carrns, “Tips for Buying and Servicing a Used Hybrid Car,” The New York Times, May 30, 2013, available online here.
Original Source: Edmonds.com
Posted on June 4, 2013