U.K. Car Dealers Turning Away From Used BEVs

Car dealers in the U.K. are avoiding trading in used battery-electric vehicles, blaming “shocking” depreciation in residual values.

A survey of 66 independent dealerships by vehicle trading platform HonkHonk now suggests BEV owners looking to trade in their cars should not expect much interest from many secondhand car dealerships. More than a third of respondents to the survey say they are “much less interested” than a year ago in taking a used BEV off a customer’s hands.

They blame this on price drops in 2023 that wiped almost half off the value of some BEV models, leaving many dealers afraid to stock them.

The survey also asks dealers if their attitude toward stocking a BEV has changed over the past 12 months and finds more than half of them were less interested today than a year ago. 

Market analysts report that BEVs are partly the victim of their own success, with supply increasing in the used market and rapid improvements to the latest new models making used examples increasingly common but also less attractive to motorists. This is worsened when combined with the ongoing problems of an inadequate charging infrastructure, the previous generations of BEVs offering lower driving ranges, and losing out to smaller internal-combustion-engine vehicles that buyers know and trust while new BEV models remain too expensive for most consumer budgets.

Sebastien Duval, CEO of HonkHonk, says: “The problem is the shocking depreciation we saw last year. It's a dramatic contrast with dealer appetite for buying in general for stock, because we're seeing demand go through the roof for other cars when HonkHonk users offer them. Right now, dealers can't get enough small or medium petrol cars, medium diesels and even hybrids."