EV Insider by Recurrent
EV Insider is the trusted intersection between owners and the car market. Leaders from across the industry join the podcast to share insights and help EV owners make smart decisions when buying and selling electric cars.
EV Insider by Recurrent
Used EVs Are Beating Their EPA Range with Matt Diorio
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Can a dealership thrive on used EVs while half the industry pulls back? In this episode of EV Insider, host Scott Case sits down with Matt Diorio of Ourisman Volvo Audi of Frederick — part of a 17-location group operating across Maryland, Virginia, and DC — to unpack what's actually moving metal in one of the country's densest EV markets.
Matt explains why Frederick County ranks among the top EV-registration areas in the U.S., how $6-a-gallon gas is pushing "fuel-price refugees" toward plug-ins and full EVs, and why his pre-owned strategy beats franchises that won't keep a traded-in EV on the lot. He and Scott dig into the federal rebate sunset that briefly made every used EV worth $25,000 — and the "rubber band" correction that followed — plus the cross-country pipeline moving off-lease California EVs to East Coast buyers.
They also tackle two undersold truths: three-year-old EVs are meeting or beating their EPA range, and the industry's 20-to-80% charging metric misses how people actually drive. Practical, specific, and refreshingly hype-free.
Subscribe to EV Insider for more conversations with the leaders shaping the EV market:
https://www.recurrentauto.com/about/ev-insider
Younger people who are tech savvy seem to be jumping ship from the gas cars and into these EVs. And I think that's kind of across the board for these customers that are buying the EVs. They tend to be tech savvy, they tend to be informed, they tend to be educated. It actually makes our job easier sometimes because they do know so much.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to EV Insider by Recurrent, where we make it easier to buy and sell electric cars by giving you access to leaders from across the industry. Let's get started.
SPEAKER_02All right. Hey Matt, good to see you again. Um excited to have you on the little show we've got here. Um and uh talk about all things EVs. Um, so yeah, let's just let me just jump into it, you know, with just getting a little bit about OSMAN. Um, you guys operate in and around the DC area, including Virginia, Maryland, you know, all carb states, you know. Um, carb, so California resource boards are supposed to be certain number of EVs sold, you know, the like by the old legislation, it was supposed to be 35% of all EVs of all new cars sold in, you know, Virginia, Maryland, DC this year. What percentage of new sales do you are you guys seeing this year now? You know, we're post uh you know EV rebates, you know, we're in the like the slow year. Um, but what yeah, what do you guys see now in across your stores?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Our uh across the stores overall, it's somewhere in the five to 10% range. Um, our store is is feeling that same kind of low number. Uh, we hit up into the 10, 10, uh almost 12% last year in new cars. Uh, we've uh leaned in on the pre-owned side of the fence, but uh Audi and Volvo are the brands here at my location, and Audi has effectively um left the East Coast without EVs while Volvo is continuing to lean into whatever people want to buy. So we are we're seeing we're still seeing about 10% of our Volvo, our new Volvo inventory is full EV. They also have uh plug-in hybrid options as well as traditional ice cars, but about 10% of our sales are are still full E V on the Volvo side.
SPEAKER_02I was just having a conversation last week with a friend who lives in the suburbs of Boston, and he was like, his little town of Belmont is so heavy on Volvo EVs. He was like, he was like, I I literally feel like uh like on the typecast, literally the people across the street have the exact same make model year and color ex uh uh 60 as he does. You know, it's like he just like like feels like a caricature of himself. Sure enough. They're good looking cars though.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, and that it's interesting because uh little known fact about uh Frederick County, where we're located, is that we're the third largest uh registration of EVs in the country. Um so it's uh it's a big EV market. We're in the DC metro area, we're about an hour outside of DC, and there's a lot of commuters that move in uh closer to DC and the in the surrounding areas to work uh into northern Virginia and things like that. So having an EV available with uh you know rising gas prices and being able to charge at home and the convenience of it is is something that really appeals to it. And it's kind of interesting that Frederick, this little county in Maryland, which 15 years ago nobody even knew existed, is is now kind of leading the charge. The infrastructure is going up. I live in uh Middletown, which is only about 10, 15 minutes away. And in the last uh six months, they've installed two charging stations that can probably charge 20 cars at a clip. So um the infrastructure is going up in this area, and I think it's because of that adoption of EVs uh for our our area. We do have a pretty wide array of uh used EVs, um, as well as the the Volvo EVs, and uh people find themselves switching, having never even considered an EV, uh, just because of the way that they, you know, they're they're interesting. So they want to take a look at them, they want to test drive them, and they do test drive them, and it's in a lot of ways, it's a superior product to a traditional ice car.
SPEAKER_02So uh okay, so Osman this year, 2026, was named uh by the recurrent community as one of the best places to buy a used EV uh in the country. Yeah. Uh what's your secret? Like that's that's a big deal. What what do what are you guys doing differently?
SPEAKER_01So the the most important thing is the ability to educate the customer and be competent when they have questions. So a lot of people are apprehensive, they have range anxiety, they don't know where they can plug in, they don't know how to figure figure out where they would, you know, charge their car um or how any of it even works. I actually uh had a new hire recently was like, I I don't really want to um I don't really want to show any of the EVs, I don't really know anything about them. It's like, okay, well, we're gonna we're gonna train you so that you can do that. We get training from the manufacturers on Volvo, on Audi, but when we get into we have Teslas on the lot. Well, which which hardware computer does it have? Does it have full self-driving? Um, you get into uh some of the the Macis and stuff like that. And they they these things are they're similar but different packages, and being able to talk about battery power and uh and range in a really competent way is something that really sets us apart from a lot of the competition. We still have dealers in our area that will not keep an EV on their lot uh if they trade one.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I mean a couple of things I I took away from that. First of all, just from an inventory stocking perspective, you've got a really wide variety of a lot of different use DB options, it sounds like not just attached to the franchise, you know, brand. Uh, and then you, you know, your your sales folks, even though they may not um be super have always been super, super comfortable with EVs. Um, they are just getting the training and they're and they're and they're sharing information amongst themselves to just get more confident. It adds so much credibility when you're when you can actually speak from experience, you know. Um feels like to me.
SPEAKER_01When it uh uh when it comes to charging, actually, our store just invested a uh pretty sizable uh investment into charging infrastructure. We added eight uh chargers to uh to I think four that we already had for a total of 12 here on the lot, um, in a combination of level two and three chargers. And then uh we've actually partnered with a local electrician who, if somebody's looking to have uh you know, charging installed in their home, we we can point to somebody and say, we know this, we know this person. They've done a good job for our clients in the past, reach out to them. They can get the the charger installed right in your garage. You never need to go to a charging station if you're just commuting to work or to the grocery store or wherever it is.
SPEAKER_02All right. So uh over the past, you know, now two months, gas prices have just gone through the roof, you know, with the with the Warren Aren. Um, have you noted like like day after that started and gas prices went poop like that? Did did you notice anything different in terms of interest in uh in EVs at your store?
SPEAKER_01Um, there has been actually uh an uptick in um not just EVs, but we do have a lot of plug-in hybrid options. And it seems like that's a safe place for people to make the step towards a full electric vehicle.
SPEAKER_02Are you noticing anything different in terms of interest from people that are like I'd call them like the gas price refugees or the gasling refugees?
SPEAKER_01We are seeing um again, commuters, um, younger people who uh who are uh tech savvy seem to be uh jumping ship from the from the gas cars and in into these EVs. And I think that's kind of across the across the board for these customers that are buying the EVs, they tend to be tech savvy, they tend to be informed, they tend to be educated, which is uh it makes it actually makes our job easier sometimes when because they do know so much.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, the the when you look at EV consideration by generation, um you you lump I so I'm late Gen X, right? I don't know where I think you might I know I don't know I'm not gonna speculate on your age, but but uh you if you lump together boomers and Gen X, it's it's 25% of uh of that of that group says I I'm I'm interested in my next car being an EV. Compare that to millennial to Gen Z and Millennials, um, and it's uh 40%. So it's like so that there's this just demographic wave that's sort of shifting, that's just coming. And already, you know, boomers and Gen X are not the most important car buyers, especially on the use side, you know. Like, so I think that there that's something that I'm not sure the overall adoption forecasts have sort of like taken into account is that generational shift and affinity towards or away from uh ice vehicles.
SPEAKER_01Well, I will I will say that it seems like once people buy electric cars, they tell you they'll never drive anything else. Um, it's uh there's a there's a loyalty there, maybe not even to a brand, but to the to uh an EV and driving an electric vehicle. It's just it's such a unique experience if you've spent your whole life driving a car that you put gas into and it's noisy and and it does all that stuff, and then you get into one of these things, it's quiet, it's smooth, the acceleration is unreal for the you know, for what you're for what you're paying for a car, um it's kind of interesting that it can rival, you know, a Corvette in in zero to 60 speed, uh 60 speed with uh, you know, for under 30 grand.
SPEAKER_02So okay, so so speaking of people, I think like getting um, you know, like going to an electric and driving it around for a while and then not coming back, like you guys probably are starting to see uh the lease, the EV lease customers that leased a car from you guys 2023, 2024, uh, with incredible, you know, incentives on that. And so they that translated in a lot of cases into really low monthly payments. So now they're starting to come back. Like, uh, how do you handle those? You know, are first of all, are those folks sticking staying with electric? Uh, even though it's more expensive to do that um now than it was, you know, there's no $150 a month payments anymore. And like, how do you handle those conversations now that the incendos are not there anymore?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's uh I've actually had clients getting out of their leases, um, and they get into a pre-owned EV. I don't think that that market is gonna remain the way that it is right now, but uh, we recently had a customer who was turning in their Etron or Audi Etron, and they came in, they were looking at a lease buyout initially, and we had almost the exact same car um certified, but it was less money than they could buy their own lease out for. So that well, there's no sense of buying our lease. We'll turn on our lease and we'll buy that car. Um, and again, I think we're in this in a in a unique market where we're going to see that initial depreciation really slow down. Um, as manufacturers have pulled back a little bit on production, there's still a demand for those for those vehicles. Um, and that's going to that's gonna uh help stabilize those those used car prices. We do try to stock weight model outies, uh EVs that I can buy, you know, as company cars or or or uh off short-term lease, uh, because there is still a demand for those cars from clients that are A loyal to the brand, but also loyal to the EV, and without having to go out to the West Coast to get one really helps.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that is a really interesting, like when you think about the logistics of where most cars were most EVs were sold new, and therefore where they're coming back off lease, like is California, like overwhelmingly. And so there's just this like, I think three years later, there's this like reallocation that's ending up happening where in order to supply the East Coast with enough uh used EVs to meet market demand, you really sort of there's a lot of cars that are getting transported across the country. I buy cars out of California every day. Yeah, yeah, it's super interesting. Um, two of the things that as I talk to dealers all over the country, uh I feel like um, you know, potential leaders now, you know, like lead lead lines, you know, uh, and depends on the person. Obviously, you talk to the person, you sort of understand, hey, what are you thinking about, what are your concerns? But one thing that we see in our data, um, an awful lot of three-year-old EVs uh are uh getting better than uh equal to or better than their EPA range um when when you when it comes to real-wheel driving. And and that is just, I feel like generally speaking, um, dealerships are underselling that and the OEMs are underselling that because that because a lot of the OEMs were just very um conservative when they when they did their EPA range testing and see them on the road. I mean, we have a billion miles of driving from recurrent that shows us like, no, actually, these cars are holding up really well in a lot of cases getting better than EPA. And that story's not out there yet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the the the information that recurrent is providing the customers is is invaluable, um, not just in the short term, but in the long term too. And it is it that I can tell you that the the that we're kind of breathing a sigh of relief on the retail side of the fence because we were in this situation where we were sure that the batteries were like everything else, and we were going to be replacing our entire uh, if not the battery, the entire car every three years, because the battery's only getting 10% of what it was getting. Um, you know, you just watch the range go down. And that's that's just not what we're seeing. And and to your point, a lot of manufacturers did take a conservative view of what their what their batteries were gonna do in real world conditions because they were afraid of the backlash from from consumers. Um, I would have been nervous about it too. You put it out there that your car's gonna go 350 miles and it gets 310 and everybody's losing their mind. You tell them it gets 300 and it goes 310, nobody says anything. Sure. Um under promise over delivery. But that, yeah, but that same car, like you said, three years down the line, is still getting 290 miles. It's not getting 170. So um it's like I said, uh on the retail side, we're breathing a sigh of relief because we know that these cars are gonna be viable for many more years than we originally thought. And it allows us to even acquire inventory at better price points for our clients with uh a level of confidence that uh that it's gonna be okay. Uh, you can own this car for three to five years, even if it does have 60 or 70,000 miles on it, and you're gonna change the tires, you're gonna change the brakes, but the battery is gonna get you back and forth to work. You know, you're not you can't go 600 miles on one charge, but you can't do that in a in a car either. So um it's the same, you're you're getting equivalent ranges to to traditional engines.
SPEAKER_02Um, okay, so to wrap this up, uh, we all there were a bunch of us that gathered at the used car summit last month. Um, and I feel like um the the takeaway that a lot of people had was like, you know, a lot of the dealers that gathered there was like I thought I was the only what crazy one who was who was who thought used EVs were like big and I'm going big, but everybody realized actually there that this is a thing, right? What were your big takeaways from that event that you were like you walked out being like, oh, I learned I really learned something, and I learned something from my, you know, sort of other dealers around the country that are heavy into Used EVs?
SPEAKER_01Sure. I think um the the biggest takeaway for me was something we kind of already were doing, but it's it just reinforced it. And that's you know, being able to answer a client's questions, really know what you're talking about, set yourself apart from other dealers that are like, I don't know, it's a Tesla. Good luck. You know, I I looked at what it's worth on KBB, and uh so now it's offered to you. Um, but being able to walk somebody through not just what the car is, what options it has, but how it could fit into their daily lives, how they would be able to set up a charger in their house, what all that really looks like um is is is the the big takeaway for me. Um the other one is that EVs aren't going anywhere. Uh they're they're they're here to stay, they're part of the automotive market, and they're going to continue to grow. There were there were a number of dealers that are still very, very bullish. I'm one of them on the especially on the pre-owned side of the fence. It's where I where I my roots are. Um, but you know, seeing that manufacturers are leaning into into producing new ones makes you know gives us uh a lot of a lot of hope for the future of of EVs um uh for for the country overall.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right. Matt, it was awesome to talk with you. Uh and again, congrats on the the the best uh place to buy a used EV award. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01We're really proud of it. Thank you very much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right, take care. Great to you next time.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for joining this episode of Eevee Insider. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And we will see you next time.