The Used EV Value Question: Georgian Market Data Shows ICE Depreciates as Fast or Faster
Electric vehicles in Georgia carry full import tax exemptions. When resale prices are traced by model year, the data contradicts the narrative of EV value collapse — ICE vehicles lose value at least as quickly. We chart the evidence.
Active EV listings volume
The zero-tax entry advantage
Georgia's tax code exempts electric vehicles from both import excise duty and import duty entirely. For petrol and diesel vehicles, import costs scale with engine displacement and vehicle age under the revised excise schedule effective April 2026: 1.5 GEL per cc for vehicles up to six years old, and 4.5 GEL per cc for vehicles older than six years — a sharp age cliff. There is no import VAT on personal car imports for either EVs or petrol cars. The EV advantage is the excise and import duty exemption, not a VAT difference.
This exemption has contributed to a Georgian used EV market of 539 active listings — large enough for a meaningful model-year cohort comparison.
The zero-tax entry advantage
Georgia's tax code exempts electric vehicles from both import excise duty and import duty entirely. For petrol and diesel vehicles, import costs scale with engine displacement and vehicle age under the revised excise schedule effective April 2026: 1.5 GEL per cc for vehicles up to six years old, and 4.5 GEL per cc for vehicles older than six years — a sharp age cliff. There is no import VAT on personal car imports for either EVs or petrol cars. The EV advantage is the excise and import duty exemption, not a VAT difference.
This exemption has contributed to a Georgian used EV market of 539 active listings — large enough for a meaningful model-year cohort comparison.
Active EV listings volume
Median ask price by model year: EV vs. ICE (June 2026)
Tracing the depreciation curves
To compare value retention fairly, the analysis matches EV and ICE by model year and traces the corridor from 2024 back to 2018. Model years 2026–2027 are excluded from the depreciation comparison as too thin or mix-skewed: the 2027 EV entry (n=1, $9,200), the 2026 EV cohort (n=6, $39,900 — listed for reference only), and the 2026 ICE cohort (n=33, $77,000, premium-heavy) are all unreliable anchors. The core comparison is anchored on the well-populated 2018–2024 cohorts — EV sample sizes run from n=43 (2018) to n=111 (2023); ICE sample sizes run from n=217 (2024) to n=1,058 (2022). The 2025 cohorts (EV n=31, ICE n=130) are included in the price tables for completeness but carry smaller samples.
EV median ask prices by model year: 2026: $39,900 | 2025: $25,500 | 2024: $24,750 | 2023: $22,250 | 2022: $18,500 | 2021: $14,000 | 2020: $13,500 | 2019: $13,000 | 2018: $11,500
ICE median ask prices by model year: 2025: $25,750 | 2024: $29,500 | 2023: $16,500 | 2022: $15,000 | 2021: $14,500 | 2020: $13,000 | 2019: $14,500 | 2018: $11,300 | 2017: $10,500
Over the 2024-to-2018 corridor, ICE drops from $29,500 to $11,300 — a fall of 61.7%. EV drops from $24,750 to $11,500 — a fall of 53.5%. ICE depreciates more steeply. The same pattern holds over a shorter window: from 2021 to 2018, ICE loses 22.1% ($14,500 → $11,300), while EV loses 17.9% ($14,000 → $11,500).
Tracing the depreciation curves
To compare value retention fairly, the analysis matches EV and ICE by model year and traces the corridor from 2024 back to 2018. Model years 2026–2027 are excluded from the depreciation comparison as too thin or mix-skewed: the 2027 EV entry (n=1, $9,200), the 2026 EV cohort (n=6, $39,900 — listed for reference only), and the 2026 ICE cohort (n=33, $77,000, premium-heavy) are all unreliable anchors. The core comparison is anchored on the well-populated 2018–2024 cohorts — EV sample sizes run from n=43 (2018) to n=111 (2023); ICE sample sizes run from n=217 (2024) to n=1,058 (2022). The 2025 cohorts (EV n=31, ICE n=130) are included in the price tables for completeness but carry smaller samples.
EV median ask prices by model year: 2026: $39,900 | 2025: $25,500 | 2024: $24,750 | 2023: $22,250 | 2022: $18,500 | 2021: $14,000 | 2020: $13,500 | 2019: $13,000 | 2018: $11,500
ICE median ask prices by model year: 2025: $25,750 | 2024: $29,500 | 2023: $16,500 | 2022: $15,000 | 2021: $14,500 | 2020: $13,000 | 2019: $14,500 | 2018: $11,300 | 2017: $10,500
Over the 2024-to-2018 corridor, ICE drops from $29,500 to $11,300 — a fall of 61.7%. EV drops from $24,750 to $11,500 — a fall of 53.5%. ICE depreciates more steeply. The same pattern holds over a shorter window: from 2021 to 2018, ICE loses 22.1% ($14,500 → $11,300), while EV loses 17.9% ($14,000 → $11,500).
Median ask price by model year: EV vs. ICE (June 2026)
Why older EVs hold value in this market
Several forces work in favour of EV value retention in Georgia. The zero excise and import duty exemption applies regardless of vehicle age — older EVs can be brought in without the tax penalty that burdens similarly aged petrol cars under the new 4.5 GEL/cc rate. This creates an effective cost floor that narrows the competitive disadvantage older EVs might otherwise face. The used EV stock reaching Georgia consists largely of mass-market models with established global secondary prices that already reflect known battery degradation expectations. Buyers can import verified older units knowing the import overhead is near zero.
The April 2026 excise reform also shifted the calculus against older ICE. A six-year-old petrol car with a 2.0-litre engine now carries a theoretical excise of roughly 9,000 GEL (around $3,300) under the new rate — substantially more than under the old schedule. This makes older petrol imports less attractive at any given ask price and may be partly responsible for the sharper value erosion visible in the ICE cohort data.
Caveats: model-mix and data scope
The figures in this analysis are raw aggregate medians from the AutoBridge listing snapshot as of June 30, 2026. Important caveats apply. First, year-cohort sample sizes vary widely — for EVs: 2027 n=1, 2026 n=6, 2025 n=31, 2024 n=46, 2023 n=111, 2022 n=97, 2021 n=80, 2020 n=39, 2019 n=34, 2018 n=43; for ICE: 2026 n=33, 2025 n=130, 2024 n=217, 2023 n=625, 2022 n=1,058, 2021 n=839, 2020 n=579, 2019 n=543, 2018 n=465, 2017 n=430. These counts explain why the 2026–2027 cohorts are excluded from the main comparison and why 2025 is treated as a secondary data point. Second, the EV and ICE pools contain different model mixes: a 2018 EV on the Georgian market is often a different vehicle category than a typical 2018 ICE, and the segment medians blend many models — the n counts confirm this is a market-wide snapshot, not a controlled comparison. These figures should not be read as like-for-like vehicle comparisons. Buyers assessing a specific model should consult per-model price histories. Nonetheless, at the segment level, the data consistently shows that ICE depreciates at least as fast as EV — the popular narrative of accelerated EV value collapse is not supported here.
Methodology
AutoBridge active-listing snapshot as of June 30, 2026, covering 539 EV listings. Canonical filter: listings from March 1, 2026 onwards (four months; no January-February data). Median ask prices are raw segment aggregates; cohort sample sizes vary widely (EV core cohorts 2018-2024: n=43-111; ICE 2022 peak: n=1,058). Thin or mix-skewed cohorts (2026 EV n=6, 2026 ICE n=33, 2027 EV n=1) excluded from the depreciation comparison. Georgian customs: EVs fully exempt from excise and import duty; ICE excise = rate x engine cc, reformed April 2026 (1.5 GEL/cc age <=6 yr, 4.5 GEL/cc age >6 yr). Aggregate market medians; not controlled like-for-like comparisons.
Over 128,000 unique listings published since January 1, 2026.