6:25 am, April 16, 2023
Used car retailers are making a mistake by refusing to stock EVs, despite recent price drops – a leading expert has told Car Dealer.
Earlier this week, we reported how car supermarket group Car Planet are now refusing to stock used electric cars due to them being deemed ‘high risk’.
That followed similar sentiments being expressed by a panel of independent dealers at our Car Dealer Live conference in Gaydon last month.
However, not everybody agrees, with one EV specialist labelling the stance ‘silly’ in an exclusive chat with Car Dealer.
Martin Miller, founder of EV Experts, sells exclusively electric vehicles from his showrooms in Hampshire and Surrey.
He says that there is still money to be made by selling used electric cars, as long as staff have the correct expertise.
The 52-year-old also questioned reports that demand was down and said he believed there remained a huge market for second-hand electric cars.
‘I think dealer groups saying that they won’t stock used EVs is a really silly thing to do,’ he told Car Dealer.
‘The world is going EV. Forget biofuels and other things like that. Electric is where we are going.
‘We’ve actually had a lot of customers come through the door and tell us that a lot of dealer groups are pushing them away with a lack of understanding when it comes to EVs.
‘If you look at the data from Auto Trader, they have reported twice as many EV enquiries than ever before in the last year or so, so the demand is there.
‘From a customers point of view, there is good value in the used EV market. With things like the E-Niro, the Kona and the ID.3, late 20s gets you a good one now.
‘We are selling lots and lots of cars as the pricing is now not that much dearer to go electric.’
Since the start of the year, used EV values have plummeted dramatically, following Tesla’s decision to cut Model 3 prices back in January.
Miller admits that he has been ‘burnt’ by the dramatic drop but backed the market to recover.
‘Mr Musk was never going to be on my Christmas card list but yes we have been burnt by it [recent price drops],’ he added.
‘What I would say is that EV is now the second biggest in seller in the new market and new has to become used at some point.
‘You hear people saying they want to have a range of 500+ miles but how often do you need that?
‘Market research is one thing but I used to work for Nokia and remember people saying they’d never buy a phone with a battery life of less than three days.
‘Things change and the world is going EV.’
