MotorTrend, which is best known for its reviews, is now launching a marketplace where consumers can buy vehicles, including used hybrids and EVs. MotorTrend Group CEO and President Alex Wellen joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the offering.

Wellen sees popularity of EVs in the used car space increasing, noting “eight to ten thousand” EV listings in its marketplace. Wellen expects EV sales to reach the “2 million mark” in 2024, given the wider utilization of Tesla (TSLA) charging stations and improved batteries, among other signs.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Eyek Ntekim

Video Transcript

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Hey, Alex, Pras here. So I don't know if you guys have the data yet, but how popular are used EVs in the marketplace? Are people searching them-- for them more than, let's say, other types of used cars, or hybrids for instance?

Related Videos

ALEX WELLEN: Yeah, we've seen that, definitely, Pras, and it's nice to see you as well. There so many more cars now on our listings, if you look at the marketplace on motortrend.com, for really used EV vehicles, because the prices have come down so significantly, and there have been a lot of improvements, as we've seen. The marketplace has grown over the last, you know, year especially, and we see growth going into 2024 right now this year as well too.

So we're seeing many, many more searches. I think our top searches are for pure EVs, then it's SUVs, and then it's hybrids across all of our searches on motortrend.com. And then in the marketplace, that's really where all the cars are coming from. We have about 10,000, 8,000 to 10,000 listings now of people giving either new or pre-owned, used EVs.

AKIKO FUJITA: Alex, I'm curious about how much value these used EVs hold in the market. I mean, you have somebody like Hertz dumping 20,000 EVs. I mean, to what extent has something like that weighed on the value with which owners can sell their cars in the used market?

ALEX WELLEN: Yeah. The EV story around Hertz got a lot of attention, and understandably so. I think they had committed to buying many, many EVs, and that by having less EVs right now was really more about repairs to damages and the cost to carry those EVs. But in general, I think the signs are that more and more EVs are being sold. Even though we've seen the growth rates slow a little bit, we are going to see double digits.

I think we're going to approach, you know, this kind of 2 million mark in 2024. I think that's ambitious, but I think there's a lot of signs for both new and used EVs. If you look at Tesla stations being used more broadly for even non-Tesla automotive vehicles, if you look at the batteries and the improvements that we're seeing there, and then we're seeing costs come down significantly in the Prius, which we named car of the year as under $30,000.

So whether it's new or used or pre-owned, I think we're seeing more and more people attracted to the EVs, and everyone knows eventually they'll be there. I think the question is how quickly. For those who don't want to get to a pure EV right now, something like the Prius is the right car for the right time.