Falling prices have fueled greater interest and resale of used electric cars, according to a new survey.
Latest data from Auto Trader’s Retail Price Index show the recovery in used electric vehicle values has continued to gather pace in October due to the combination of increasing consumer demand for greener vehicles fuelled by attractive prices and a softening in the recent surge in supply of second-hand EVs entering the market.
The average retail value of a used EV has increased 0.6% so far in October1 on a month-on-month and like-for-like basis with prices at £32,203. In September prices were flat MoM, which followed 12 consecutive months of decline.
While prices are still down on a year-on-year basis, the stabilising market leaves prices -19.6% down YoY – the shallowest rate of YoY decline since June.
At 0.6%, the monthly price growth for EVs is slightly ahead of the 0.2% MoM improvement for petrol values, but just below the 0.7% monthly increase for diesels. On an annual basis ICE vehicles remain well ahead of their electric counterparts, with current petrol and diesel prices up 1.3% YoY (£16,315) and 0.8% YoY (£16,000) respectively.
The increase in used EV prices is being fuelled by favourable market dynamics, with levels of consumer demand2 outpacing supply levels on Auto Trader’s online marketplace. Demand for used EVs is up 78.4% so far in October – far ahead of petrol (up 2%) and diesel (down -1.1%). What’s more, used EVs are taking just 23 days to leave the forecourts, the fastest since December 2018 and almost a week faster than the 28-day average for the used market overall.
Crucially, whilst demand growth is accelerating, the overall rate of supply growth of used EVs is softening, falling from an increase of 115% YoY in August, and 57% in September, to an increase of just 24.3% so far this month.
