Jaguar I-Pace The Jaguar I-Pace showed the highest depreciation among all cars in the US over five years. Picture: Supplied
Image: Supplied
A comprehensive study on depreciation among cars in the US shows significant variations between segments.
Online automotive search engine iSeeCars.com analysed over 800,000 five-year old used vehicles that were sold between March 2024 and February 2025, to determine their depreciation rates.
The results, unsurprisingly, showed that pick-up trucks, or bakkies as we know them in SA, were the least depreciation-prone, losing just 40.4% of their value on average, over five years.
Hybrid vehicles were a close second at 40.7% depreciation, while SUV body types lost 48.9% of their value over that period.
Five-year depreciation
Image: iSee Cars
But, most worryingly, electric vehicles showed a significantly higher depreciation rate of 48.9% on average.
The most depreciation-prone vehicle model of all in the US over five years was the Jaguar I-Pace electric crossover, with a depreciation rate of 72.7%. It was followed by the BMW 7 Series sedan (67.1%), Tesla Model S (65.2%), Infiniti QX90 (65%) and Maserati Ghibli (64.7%). The Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model X also made the top 10, in seventh and ninth positions, losing 64.1% and 63.4% respectively.
At the other end of the scale, niches such as sports cars and coupes saw much lower rates of depreciation.
The vehicle that lost the least value in the US over five years was the Porsche 911, at 19.5%, followed by the Porsche 718 Cayman at 21.8%, while the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Mustang also made impressive showings with depreciation rates of 27.2% and 29.2% respectively.
The vehicle with the third lowest depreciation rate overall was the Toyota Tacoma (26%), which is the US equivalent of the Hilux, albeit using a different platform. The larger Toyota Tundra came seventh at 29.1%.
“Depreciation remains the most expensive aspect of buying a new vehicle, and the variation between vehicle types and specific models is something consumers should consider when researching their next purchase,” said iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer.
“The difference between buying a hybrid versus an electric vehicle could be tens of thousands of dollars in lost value.”
Similar data for South African vehicles is not available at present, but local buying patterns are likely to mirror international trends, particularly given the popularity of bakkies on the SA market and the luke-warm reception to EVs thus far.
IOL
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