11:31 am, March 4, 2024
The average price of used EVs advertised by dealers fell by 15% last month versus February 2023 to a new post-Covid low of £27,607.
That’s according to Motors, which said supply stayed flat but online searches went up.
Its Market View found that EV prices have now been sinking since September, when they were £31,209 on average, with month-on-month (MoM) drops averaging 2.5%.
This also reflects the older EVs now included in the used car market.
Vehicles that had double-digit MoM price drops were led by the Audi E-Tron (2-3 years), which was down 15% to £32,271.
It was followed by the Vauxhall Mokka (6-12 months), which was down 13% to £19,461, the Citroen C4 (6-12 months) dropped by 12% to £21,757 and the Nissan Leaf (2-3 years) fell by 11% to £15,994.
Meanwhile, ongoing price changes across many models saw a year-on-year (YoY) doubling of EV ad views on Motors from 0.8% to 1.6%, although precise figures weren’t given.
Despite greater volumes of EVs reportedly entering the wholesale market as fleets replaced older vehicles, dealer stock levels stayed flat MoM and YoY, accounting for just 5% of vehicles that were listed for sale.
EVs also dominated the top five fastest-selling used cars in February, with the Volkswagen ID.5 (less than six months), pictured, selling in 10 days, Audi Q4 (less than six months) in 11 days and MG MG4 (1-2 years) in 12 days.
The overall fastest-selling used car in February was the petrol-engined Kia XCeed (6-12 months), averaging just nine days on dealer forecourts.
Overall, February was relatively stable for used car activity, said Motors.
The average price of cars listed on the website fell by just 1.3% to £16,862 versus January’s £17,078, with MoM drops now an established trend since prices peaked at £18,903 in January 2023.
Average days to sell across all retail sectors improved slightly MoM from 44 to 43 days.
This was mostly led by franchised dealers, where cars averaged 34 days in stock – significantly better than January’s 42 days.
Car supermarkets stayed flat at 30 days, while independents saw days to sell go up from 55 to 58 days.
Stock volumes were down slightly YoY from 44 to 43 units, and two units down MoM.
Car supermarkets suffered the biggest MoM drop – down from 246 to 214 units. They were followed by franchised dealers – down from 56 to 51 units – while independents were unchanged at 34 units.
Lucy Tugby, marketing director of Motors, which analyses the used car market every month and gives dealers access to multi-site advertising, hailed it as ‘a welcome month of stability for the used car market with minor MoM movements across our three key metrics: average price, days to sell and stock levels.’
She added: ‘The steady monthly downward realignment of prices from the highs we saw last year continues, with the average now below £17,000 for the first time since October 2022.
‘These lower prices, coupled with reduced inventories, resulted in a slight improvement in days to sell.
‘February’s standout trends were around EVs. Growing awareness of price corrections is certainly generating more interest among potential EV buyers searching online.
‘Models that were deemed unaffordable this time last year are now up for serious consideration.
‘This presents dealers with a dilemma. They know the demand is there and certain models sell quickly, but they will be wary about increasing stock levels until there is closer price parity to comparable petrol and diesel models.’
