The used car market is seeing too many medium and large electric cars entering the remarketing cycle, and not enough smaller ones for everyday buyers.
That’s the view of Andy Webb, head of sales at Brego who said this imbalance was behind the collapse in BEV values over the past two years.
“We’re seeing a skewing of the used EV market towards manufacturers and models for which there is limited demand in the market and this has been the primary reason for the collapse in EV values over the last few years.
“If there had been more ‘normal’ EVs around, the falls we have seen may have been much more limited.
“While the situation is improving slightly, with fleets beginning to buy some smaller, cheaper EVs, there is a very real possibility that the used market will not begin to function correctly until we see consumers buying more new EVs. They will eventually provide the kind of stock that the market needs, rather than what it is currently getting.”
Brego was speaking at a Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) meeting in Swindon.
Also in attendance was Martin Miller, founder of Surrey-based specialist EV dealership, EV Experts.
Miller said: “There is no doubt we have been through some considerable pain within the EV market but it really does feel as though things are changing for the better. For example, our unit profit has increased by 18% between June and September this year.
“The factors behind this are numerous but the kind of price parity that we are now seeing between comparable EVs and petrol cars is important and, every time there is an increase in petrol prices, we see increased interest for consumers. Especially, when petrol hits £1.50 per litre, it seems to be a tipping point, concentrating the minds of motorists on the kind of savings that are available from going electric.”