Used electric vehicles take more than twice as long to sell after being defleeted than petrol or diesel cars, according to new research.
Fleet technology solutions provider Epyx has revealed that petrol cars on its 1link Disposal Network platform take an average of 10 days to sell, and diesel vehicles 11. Buyers for second-hand fleet EVs are not found for 25 days after coming on to the market, on average. The figures are broadly the same if the data is split into online and physical auction sales.
“It’s no secret that the market for EVs has been pretty volatile in recent months and this is almost certainly having an effect on dealer’s propensity to take on this stock,” Tim Meadows, CEO at Epyx, said.
“However, against that development should be balanced the fact that now, something like one in six vehicles for sale on 1link Disposal Network at any time are EVs. This represents huge volume growth in this sector over a relatively short period of time.
This data reflects what is happening in the motor industry generally, and EVs in particular. Although the market for used battery electric vehicles saw a 37.5% increase last year, their sales still only represented 1% of the total for second-hand car sales in the UK. Second-hand fully hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars took 4.1% of the total market.
Meadows feels that the market is still moving in the right direction. “Ultimately, the speed at which they are selling could conceivably be viewed as a positive and there is every chance that excessive supply and demand for EVs will switch places several times before the market reaches a point of relative stabilisation. Today’s situation could change quite quickly.”
