9:20 am, March 11, 2025
Used car dealers need to be ‘very careful’ and keep their ‘eyes wide open’ when stocking second-hand EVs.
That is the verdict of Cox Automotive expert, Phil Nothard, who says that some electric models are currently proving to be ‘hard work’ for retailers.
Nothard will be joining us at Car Dealer Live later in the week and ahead of his appearance at the British Motor Museum, he stopped by for a chat on the latest episode of the Car Dealer Podcast.
During the show, talk turned to our very own James Baggott, who has recently been struggling to sell a white Tesla Model 3 Performance.
It is an experience which will be familiar to dealers up and down the country, with many currently avoiding EVs after getting their fingers burned.
Asked for his own view, Nothard said that there remains money to be made in used EVs but advised dealers to be thorough in their research.
He said: ‘I think you’ve got to be very careful, eyes wide open, do your research, understand your market. If you refer back to Cap HPI’s figures from February going into March the EV market was down 1.6% but that was driven by I-Pace, Tesla, EV Mini, which is under a bit of pressure in the sector at the minute, and Polestar.
‘You’ve got particular makes, models that are hard work. Some of it because some of them are not that good value as a used EVs – they don’t necessarily sit well in the market – and some of it, because of what’s going on in the new car space impacts in those older EVs as well.
‘There are opportunities there in EVs, but you’ve got to go in with your research and view them differently.
‘From your perspective, you had a go at that Tesla. You did everything right on it. You did the research, you did your videos, you did your marketing, and it just wasn’t necessarily right for you and your business at this point in time, it was not for your customer base.’
Despite James’s struggles, Nothard says that if you stock the right EVs, at the right price, the buyers are out there for them.
However, he warned dealers to stay on the ball if they are to make a success of second-hand electric cars.
‘If you’ve got a market for it and you’ve got the right price point, yeah, you’ll find a buyer for it,’ Nothard explained.
‘But again, you’ve just got to be very careful when it comes to that kind of thing and be clear that you don’t just forget about it alongside everything else you’ve got in stock.
‘You’ve got to really keep an eye on it to make sure that you’re, you know, you’re monitoring on a daily basis, your inquiries, your price point, because the prices can shift overnight very quickly on that kind of product.
You just have to be eyes wide open – especially if Elon Musk says something he shouldn’t!’
The Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Carwow, sees an industry guest join our hosts to discuss the motor trade’s biggest headlines of every week.
A full list of the stories discussed on this week’s episode can be found here.
You can listen to all episodes of the Car Dealer Podcast on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
