Used EV ‘revolution’ now underway

The electric revolution in the used car sector is gathering pace, according to new research from automotive analyst Glass’s.

Renault Zoe

The EV revolution in the used car sector is gathering pace, according to new research from automotive analyst Glass’s.

In a recent investigation into the used car sector, it discovered around 7,500 second-hand battery electric vehicles for sale. When it conducted similar research 15 months ago, there were barely 1,500 for sale – a growth of more than 130 percent.

Glass’s says this is leading to used car buyers beginning to see EVs as an affordable option compared to traditional cars.

The sweet-spot for used car prices, reckon dealers, is around £5,995.

Although new EVs are expensive, used EVs are within reach of far more people. Indeed, a 10-year-old Nissan Leaf can be found from around £4,000 if you look hard enough.

The Renault Zoe is another popular electric car that is increasingly available for prices around the used car sweet-spot.

Residual values on the up

Residual values of EVs are also beginning to improve, after early disappointment in this area.

Back in early 2018, the average retained value of a five-year-old Nissan Leaf was barely 15 percent; within 18 months, this doubled to more than 30 percent.

It has since dipped, to around 25 percent, as growing numbers of cars enter the marketplace – but today it has levelled out, indicating sustained interest in EVs despite the impact of Covid-19.

Glass’s editor Jonathan Brown says the firm’s analysts will now watch the EV market with interest, paying particular attention to significant numbers of cars expected to enter used car channels over the next three years.

The used EV marketplace, says Glass’s, is set to expand rapidly, to reflect the sharp increase in new EV sales – meaning both the amount of choice and the affordability of EVs will only improve further.

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Richard Aucock
Richard Aucockhttps://www.richardaucock.co.uk/
Richard is director at Motoring Research. He has been with us since 2001, and has been a motoring journalist even longer. He won the IMCO Motoring Writer of the Future Award in 1996 and the acclaimed Sir William Lyons Award in 1998. Both awards are run by the Guild of Motoring Writers and Richard is currently vice chair of the world's largest organisation for automotive media professionals. Richard is also a juror and Steering Committee director for World Car Awards and the UK juror for the AUTOBEST awards.

1 COMMENT

  1. Um…no, this is simply because as new car EV sales increase and older ones start to age they will appear in increasing numbers on the used market. It doesn’t need an “investigation”, a five year old could have worked that out. More and more electric cars are being produced and sold, more and more new models are appearing, so as time progresses more will appear on the used market.

    Sales figures are absolutely tiny as part of the market as a whole, but the hype suggests that you have to have one because everybody else is buying one. No thought has yet been given to those people who don’t have a driveway or space to park their car by their home, millions of people still live in multi storey flats and apartments and so on. Even if the range increases, most people are not going to want to sit around for hours waiting for their cars to charge unless it’s overnight, at home.

    That brings me to the next point. Is this a sneaky long term plan to get traffic off the roads? If everything is all electric in a couple of decades time you have already taken that last group of people out of the equation, and then what happens when the car is of no value because the batteries need replacing? How many people are going to want to buy an ten year old car that requires thousands of pounds worth of batteries replacing? We’re already seeing that with the awful retained value of the Nissan Leaf, and the £500 runabout will be a thing of the past.

    As for saving the world, has anybody factored in that lots of cars will be scrapped long before the end of their useful life span just because of that factor, that it won’t be worth spending money on replacing the batteries. We’re already seeing millions of perfectly good cars well under 10 years old filling the scrapyards because of the cost of repairs, and this will be far worse with electric vehicles. How is all this excess junk going to help the planet? When I change my car my 18 year old Volvo will no doubt be scrapped because nobody will want to buy a car that does 20 mpg or less around town, yet it’s a perfectly good car and considerably better than many of the cars on the road today in my opinion. This scenario will be repeated countless millions of times around the world soon with younger and younger cars being scrapped simply because of the replacement battery issue.

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