The average value of a three-year-old electric car is now 43.8% lower than it was 18 months ago, according to Indicata UK.
The analysis company said this finding, from its latest Market Watch report, came on the back of a 2% fall in EV values in June, compared with a 0.1% drop for the overall used car market.
It did, however, say that demand for used EVs was continuing to rise in line with falling prices, and was now more in sync with supply.
Indicata’s market days’ supply metric figure – derived from dividing the currently available supply of stock by the average daily retail sales rate over the past 45 days – had EVs at 50 days at the beginning of July, slightly behind hybrids at 47.5 days and diesel and petrol at 45 and 41 days respectively.
According to Indicata, manufacturer-backed tactical registrations also played a key role in the June market, with the sale of used cars under 12 months old up 15.9% month-on-month. It said many nearly new EVs were being fed into the market in this way as OEMs looked to achieve their 22% ZEV mandate target for 2024.
The market share of used cars up to four years old taken by EVs also continued to rise in June, to 9.3%, followed by diesel (10.8%), and hybrids (30.6%), while petrol remained the dominant fuel type with a 49.1% share.
Indicate UK head of sales Dean Merritt said: “Our latest used EV trends do not make enjoyable reading for leasing companies who have got used cars to sell at the end of customer contracts.
“Some are turning to secondary leasing for their younger lower mileage used EVs as a means of reducing the residual value pain, which also helps to reduce the chance of ex-fleet cars flooding the market.
“The good news is that consumer demand for used EVs continues to increase as prices get cheaper as they continue to find their feet in the used market. However, it remains a slower process than most would like.”
