Automotive News reports that off-lease electric vehicles will account for almost 15% of lease-return used cars by the end of 2026 and that Experian projects a peak of nearly 800,000 lease-return EVs in 2028.
Industry experts told Automotive News that lease-return EVs are trading at about $10,000 less than finance arms had expected, and that could translate to as much as $8 billion in collective losses for US automaker finance operations including Tesla, General Motors, Hyundai-Kia, Volkswagen Group, and Ford.
Automotive News notes Tesla led 2025 with roughly 229,000 leases, followed by General Motors at 102,000 and Hyundai-Kia at 78,000, exposing those finance arms to concentrated residual-value risk when leases end.
Sources cited a collapse in used EV resale values — three-year-old EVs averaged about 90% retention in 2022 but sat near 40% by the end of 2025 — and said predictive depreciation models used to price leases have been disrupted.
This article is based on reporting from Jalopnik.
Read the full article at Jalopnik.
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