10:15 am, October 7, 2026
Used electric car retail prices have risen by almost £2,000 in recent months as soaring fuel costs accelerate demand – but it comes as overall used car prices have slipped for the first time this year.
Latest figures from Cazana – shown to Car Dealer ahead of wider publication – reveal three-year-old EV values increased by another 1.6% – around £330 – during September.
It was the sixth consecutive month in which electric cars recorded the strongest percentage gains of any fuel type, taking their average increase over recent months to 9.1%, or almost £2,000.
Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer – in the video interview posted at the top of this story – automotive expert Derren Martin said the combination of increasingly competitive used EV prices and rising petrol and diesel costs had created a ‘perfect storm’ for demand.
He said: ‘Electric vehicles, for most of this year, have now been very close to petrol equivalent cars, and that was what was needed.
‘People weren’t going to pay a load more money for an electric vehicle. They wanted to pay similar to what they would pay for a petrol car to be sort of asked to switch into one.
‘Then you’ve got petrol and diesel prices going up and it’s kind of the perfect storm. It’s just accelerated. Everyone was going to start considering electric vehicles at some point, but it’s happened a lot quicker than that.’
Martin said the total cost of ownership was also increasingly compelling for buyers able to charge at home.
He added: ‘They’re very appealing now to the consumer. Once you get over the range anxiety and any concerns around that, then it works really well for you.
‘There does seem to be no end in sight and you’re right, it’s gone up by another £300 this month on average, and £2,000 over the last sort of six or seven months.’
The EV performance helped cushion what was otherwise the first monthly fall in average three-year-old used car values recorded by Cazana in 2026.
Overall prices slipped 0.2%, equivalent to around £50, following a 0.5% increase in August.
Martin said the small decline needed to be put into perspective, with prices still ‘over 4 or 5% up’ compared with the beginning of the year.
Petrol values fell 0.5% during September and hybrids were down 0.3%, but diesel suffered a much steeper 1.8% decline.
Diesels now account for just over 3% of three-year-old cars advertised by dealers in Cazana’s data, compared with 13% for EVs.
Martin believes dealers should think carefully before adding diesel stock while pump prices remain around £2 a litre.
He told Car Dealer: ‘You’d be brave to stock more than a few diesel vehicles really because, as I say, all you’ve got to do is do a bit of homework on it and are you really going to buy one?
‘I think that £2 a litre has caused a few ructions.’
He added: ‘It’s quite eye opening when you see dealers actually turning them away from part-exchanges and probably saying go to a car buying service or something like that to sell your diesel car because I don’t want them. That is quite telling.’
Martin was referring to Car Dealer’s story last week which revealed some EV specialists are turning away diesel cars as part-exchanges, telling this publication they were worried about having difficulties moving these vehicles on.
Martin expects diesel values to remain under pressure, although declining supply could prevent a dramatic collapse.
‘I would imagine that they’ll continue to sort of drop, not dramatically, because the volume’s not there,’ he said.
‘I would expect them to not perform particularly well and not be in particularly high demand. If you’re a car dealer, you wouldn’t be looking to stock any of them.’
Older used cars performed more strongly overall, with average values at both five and 10 years increasing by 0.2%.
More than 2,500 pre-reg cars already advertised
The Cazana data also shows more than 2,500 ‘76’ plate vehicles had already appeared on websites by the end of September.
Peugeot accounted for around 440 of those cars, followed by Vauxhall with 350 and Volvo with 340.
Martin believes competition from newer entrants is putting established manufacturers under growing pressure to chase registrations.
He said: ‘I think there’s huge pressure out there now. There’s the new brands that have come in, obviously very well documented about the Chinese brands coming in, and the Jaecoo 7 was the biggest seller in September, which is pretty incredible from a standing start of, what, less than two years ago.
‘I think the Chinese are chasing volume. Interestingly, the pre-registration activity doesn’t seem to be much by them though.’
He added: ‘It’s telling that there’s pressure from the Chinese, but that then is putting pressure on the legacy brands to register cars and hit their volumes.’
Martin warned that pre-registration could ultimately feed through into used car values.
‘Pre-registration vehicles are sort of used cars masquerading as new, or new cars masquerading as used, whichever way you want to look at it,’ he said.
‘They’re cheap cars and that can impact your residual values and your used car prices.
‘There’ll be more of that to look out for as we go through December, chasing that year-end target.’
Elsewhere in the video, Martin discusses car supermarkets which are pushing up prices higher than retailers, and what he thinks is the biggest threat to profitability over the next three months.
Watch the full interview at the top of this story to find out more.