12:26 pm, March 4, 2026
Used car retail prices climbed in February, with second-hand EVs recording an encouraging rise.
Latest data from the recently rebranded Cazana, released to Car Dealer ahead of official publication, shows that average used retail prices at the benchmark three-year point jumped by 1.7%, or £340.
Price rises were across the board, too, with one-year-old vehicles seeing a 0.7% increase, and five-year-olds experiencing a 1.4% rise.
Speaking on Car Dealer Live, automotive consultant Derren Martin said February performed as expected, with demand building on a positive January and pushing dealers to increase prices across much of the market.
‘February did what we expected it to do because the first two months of the year tend to be strong,’ Martin said in the video posted at the top of this story. ‘January starts off quite well, February gets better and that’s what we saw in the retail market.’
He added: ‘Across all of the age brackets dealers have been putting some prices up – not dramatically, but taking advantage of that extra demand. It’s been a good month for the dealers.’
One factor behind the strength of three- and five-year-old cars is the lingering supply shortage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Three- and five-year ages are quite explainable because that’s the Covid years,” Martin explained. ‘There’s been a shortage of cars registered since 2020, so you’d expect those to perform quite well.’
However, one of the more notable developments in February was the performance of used electric vehicles.
According to Cazana’s data, EV values increased 1.4% on average, making it one of the strongest months for electric cars in recent times after a recent turbulent period.
All fuel types recorded rises, too, with hybrids leading the way at 2.3%.
Despite the overall EV increase, Martin warned that the electric vehicle market remains unpredictable, with some models rising while others continue to fall.
‘Some cars are looking good value, some of them are still dropping,’ he said. ‘That EV world remains quite complicated.’
For example, the Fiat 500e, Audi e-tron GT and Jaguar I-Pace all saw price increases during February, while models such as the Nissan Ariya, BMW iX1 and Polestar 2 fell in value.
Even so, Martin believes the growing stability in EV pricing could encourage dealers to treat electric vehicles more like other stock on their forecourts.
‘There definitely feels a lot more stability in that EV world,’ he said. ‘Dealers are maybe just treating EVs on their forecourt like they do other vehicles.’
However, he urged retailers not to overcommit to electric stock.
‘My advice would be don’t over-invest in EVs. A good mixture of all the fuel types remains a good thing to do.’
As for body-styles, estates saw a strong 3.4% price jump, followed by saloons at 2.5% and MPVs at 2%. These more niche body-types are currently suffering from lower supply, allowing dealers to maximise margins, said Martin.
Looking ahead to March, Martin did warn that the market might be affected by the current conflict in the Middle East, which has already had an effect on petrol prices.
‘When petrol prices go up, more people start considering EVs,’ he said. ‘And I think when more people are considering EVs and they see the prices they can get them at, then it may be a switch that people make. We find that once people make that switch to EV, not many people go back.’
