The future of EVs in the collectible cars market, from Tesla to BMW

The term “collectible vehicle” might conjure up images of an elegant convertible from the 1930s, or maybe a souped-up muscle car. But time moves on. A new crop of all-electric vehicles and hybrid cars have begun to draw interest from collectors despite big price reductions on new EVs and a volatile used marketplace where five-year-old EVs depreciate almost 50% and used hybrids hold their value better than every vehicle category except trucks.

So which EVs and hybrids may become collectible and possibly rise in value in the decades to come?

“What people like when they’re younger becomes collectible when they’re older,” said Daniel Strohl, former editor of the collector car publication Hemmings Daily. “We saw that with the muscle cars boomers collected, and we’re seeing it now with 1980s trucks and Japanese imports that are popular with younger collectors.”

The biggest factors to collectability are design, performance and historical significance, noted John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics at Hagerty, which offers collector car insurance and car valuation data, among other auto market services. “If the car did something important, looks great and is fun to use, it will be collectible.”

Rarity and condition are also important factors, said Dietrich Hatlapa, founder of the Historic Automobile Group International, which tracks the market with several indexes. “Small production numbers help,” he said. “With mass-produced cars, usually only the most pristine examples with low miles are collectible.”

As with most things, power and beauty add to a car’s appeal. High-performance sports cars demand a premium over more pedestrian vehicles. “It’s about bragging rights, so cars that turn heads such as the Tesla Roadster and BMW i8 are…