Interest in used electric vehicles rose by almost 20% in 2020, despite the pandemic and the closure of car dealerships during lockdown periods, new analysis by AA Cars, the AA’s used car website, has revealed.
Searches for EVs on the AA Cars platform have been growing steadily year after year, increasing 47 times (4,623%) since 2015. Interest in electric cars grew by 18.85% year-on-year in 2020.
Demand is set to increase by a further 42% during 2021, if the growth so far this year (up to 16 March) stays on course. As these searches were all carried out during lockdown, this figure could rise even higher as restrictions ease and people return to their normal car-buying habits.
The continued growth of the used EV market during 2020 reflects the surge in the new car market. Although overall sales of new cars fell by 29.4% in 2020, sales of EVs rose by 185.9%. EVs made up 6.6% of the total sales of new cars last year, increasing from a 1.6% market share in 2019.
London had the highest number of searches for EVs in the country, likely due to its larger population and the upcoming extension of its Ultra Low Emission Zone. Londoners have made nearly 55,000 searches for EVs on the AA Cars alone site in the past two years.
It was followed by the UK’s other major cities, with Bristol recording the second highest number of searches for EVs in 2019 and 2020, followed by Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
