7:09 am, August 19, 2026
Used electric cars can deliver strong margins for dealers prepared to buy the right stock at the right price, according to Car Quay founder Jamie Caple.
Caple told the Car Dealer Podcast that his business had recently sold a batch of 16 Volkswagen ID.4s after securing them at a favourable price.
The cars were sourced from a batch of former Addison Lee vehicles, with Caple initially buying a smaller number before being offered a much larger quantity.
He ultimately bought 19 cars in one deal, including the 16 ID.4s, after negotiating for them to be supplied at the previous month’s valuation.
‘From June to July’s guide, they’d shot up like £850 or £900 a car,’ Caple told podcast hosts Jon Reay and James Baggott.
‘The caveat of us buying them all is that they come at June’s book. If I commit to them all today, will they do them at June’s book? And they said yes.’
The strategy paid off, with every car bought in the deal sold within 45 days.
Caple said the ID.4s had been particularly attractive because they were among the cheapest examples on the market while still allowing Car Quay to achieve a margin closer to what it would normally expect from used cars.
‘We can’t really get the margin across them that we would traditionally get across other cars,’ he said.
‘But these we kind of got our normal margin and a little bit.’
His comments come as used EV prices rose once again last month.
Recent figures from data intelligence provider Cazana show that retail prices of EVs jumped by 1.6%, with automotive expert Derren Martin telling Car Dealer Live the market is experiencing a ‘market of stability’.
Caple said he had recently attended a BCA sale at Donington where used Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4 models were making around £1,200 to £1,300 below retail.
However, he questioned how retailers buying those cars could make the numbers work.
‘Whoever’s buying those cars is either pricing them well above market average or working for between £800 and £1,000,’ he said.
‘I actually suspect that’s what’s happening with those cars.’
Caple said the level of volume required to make such low margins viable was considerable, with dealers potentially needing to generate significant additional income from finance, warranties and other products.
He added that customer expectations were also becoming increasingly difficult to manage, particularly when retailers were operating on relatively thin margins.
‘Everybody just seems to want their money back at the minute,’ he said. ‘If everyone has an issue or there’s a little problem, customer expectations seem to be unrealistic.’
Despite his concerns about margins across the wider EV market, Caple said the ID.4s sold by Car Quay had proved straightforward to retail.
The business has also sold Teslas, with Caple reporting that some Model 3s had required replacement batteries.
He said Tesla had dealt with those warranty claims without issue, although customers had faced waits of around a month for replacement batteries.
Car Quay also carries out a battery health check on its electric cars before they are sold, which Caple said helps give both his business and customers additional confidence in the condition of the vehicle.
He acknowledged that EVs still felt relatively unfamiliar to many consumers despite having been on the market for more than a decade.
‘As much as they’ve been out for a while now, it’s still a whole new world,’ he said.
The Car Dealer Podcast can be listened to on Spotify and other streaming platforms.