Dealers stocking fewer used EVs than any other European country

UK dealers are holding fewer used EVs in stock than any other country in Europe, according to the latest INDICATA Market Watch report.

Through a combination of growing used EV sales and dealers limiting their stock levels of zero emission cars, their Market Days’ Supply (MDS) of 54 days is the lowest in Europe.

Market Days’ Supply is derived from looking at the relationship of used cars between dividing the currently available supply of inventory and the average daily retail sales rate over the past 45 days.

To put this into perspective Austria and Spain have the highest MDS of 143 days and 135 days respectively for EVs and Denmark the lowest at 55 days.

The MDS gap between EVs and other powertrains are narrowing with hybrids and diesels at 45 days and petrol cars at 42 days.

“Our data records the levels of stock being held by dealers rather than the total amount of used cars available in the market. We know the wholesale market is backed up with large supplies of used EVs, but dealers are still being quite cautious about stocking used EVs,” said Dean Merritt, INDICATA UK’s head of sales.

“There are signs that there is a growing confidence to invest in older used EVs as well as the premium high-end models as they currently look very good value.”

“The car industry continues to invest in tactical campaigns to educate and incentivise consumers and dealers alike so there is no reason that used EV volumes cannot grow quickly. These are all signs that EVs are close to becoming an integral part of the used car market,” he added.

Used EVs fell in price by -0.7% between March and April, while prices overall fell by just -0.1% month on month, which suggests the UK has seen some of the last of the major price falls experienced since early 2023.