Interest in used electric vehicles has climbed and sales appear strong — trends that may have far-reaching impacts beyond dealership lots.

A year ago, half of electric vehicle shoppers said they would consider going used. But now nearly 80% are interested, according to the Q3 2022 Used Electric Car Market Report from Recurrent, a company that provide analysis of EV battery health.

And sales figures in Recurrent’s research appear to back that up.

Citing its inventory data gathered from more than 50,000 dealers, Recurrent estimates that used vehicles comprised about one third of all EV sales in the first quarter.

This share is higher than that of EV sales coming from non-Tesla OEMs, Recurrent said.

One driver, the company said in the report, is short supply on the new-car said, as Recurrent noted, “long waitlists for popular EV models leave many new car shoppers looking at the second-hand market.

“These shoppers are willing to pay for a new EV, so their price point tends to be higher than other used car shoppers. This trend in particular drives up demand for used cars in ‘like new’ condition — and shoots up prices across the board,” the company said.

Andrew Garberson, head of marketing at Recurrent, said in a news release on the research: “Lots of factors are playing into this interest spike in used electric cars. I don’t expect it to wane anytime soon because many of the contributors — unrelenting gas prices, new car supply shortages and dozens of exciting model releases — are not going to suddenly change, either.”

Garberson added: “Once a secondary market is established, it does not normally disappear.”

And often it trickles down into another segment of that secondary market: wholesale.

The auto auction industry has long prepared for an expected influx of used EVs to hit their lanes. While recent history has shown electrics to take only a small slice of the wholesale market, that’s not expected to be the case in the long run.

In an Industry Perspective, Chris Angelicchio, executive director of the ServNet auction group, outlined some of the steps that his group’s auctions are taking to prepare.

“As governments drive the shift from the internal combustion engine, the automotive industry is observing rapid growth in electric vehicle sales, up as much as 85% year over year,” Angelicchio wrote. “With those vehicles due to hit the used vehicle market in the coming months, ServNet auctions are installing charging stations, training mechanical technicians and educating their employees to safely handle electric vehicles.

“One of the biggest challenges we see with used electric vehicles in the wholesale environment is accurately disclosing the health of the vehicle batteries, and work is underway to accurately assess and document those batteries in every electronic vehicle processed at a ServNet auction,” he said.