“EV demand remains buoyant, but unlike [with] ICE counterparts, where supply is trickling through, the EV floodgates have been opened, resulting in a tsunami of used stock entering the market,” said Richard Walker, director of insights at Auto Trader.
The used car specialist has reported that the number of used EVs available to buy in February was up 260% on the same month the year before, while used ICE cars were down 20%.
Values could fall further, while the excess number of used EVs remain a slug on dealer forecourts. EVs on average were the slowest-selling fuel type in February, recent Auto Trader data shows, taking an average of 45 days to be sold.
“There’s a massive issue of supply of used EVs,” Robert Forrester, CEO of dealer group Vertu, told Zeus Capital in a recent interview.
It’s a tricky time for EVs. Electricity prices have remained stubbornly high, while pump prices for petrol and diesel have come down, eroding the EV cost advantage. Fears around the fragility of the long-distance charging network also abound.
“Some people have decided [EVs are] not for them, and that’s compounding what was always going to be a greater level of supply,” Forrester said.
Of course, values are also dependent on what happens to new-car prices. Tesla’s very public cutting of its prices by up to £8000 in January will have affected used prices, even though no one else followed suit, at least in the UK.
