If you want an electric car, DON’T buy new – many used EVs are now cheaper than ICE

Despite used EV prices stabilising, the massive drop in the value of used EVs means it makes no sense to buy new. Just get a secondhand bargain.

We hear all the time that electric car sales are rising rapidly and that we’re all falling in love with the silence and immediate torque EVs offer.

But the reality is that it’s sales to businesses and fleets of electric cars – accounting for up to 80 per cent of new EV sales – making all the running because of the big tax breaks which make it a bit of a no-brainer over an ICE car.

For private buyers, it’s a different ballgame, with residual values of used EVs way worse than manufacturers and finance companies expected (expect EV lease specialists to crash and burn soon – Onto has already gone – and stacks of used EVs continuing to hit the market in the next few years at appealing prices.

Despite Auto Trader reporting today that used EV prices have stopped falling, the reality is that used prices have fallen so far for EVs that they’re often cheaper than an equivalent ICE model.

For example, a three-year-old Renault Zoe costs an average of £12,550 whilst a used ICE Clio costs £13,163, a Jaguar i-Pace £30k and a Jaguar F-Pace £34k. And there are lots of other examples of massive price drops, and overall used EVs have dropped in value by almost a quarter in the last year according to Auto Trader.

But looking at other market research, the drops across a wide range of EVs is more substantial, particularly for one-year-old models.

According to This is Money, a one-year-old Seat Mii has lost 50 per cent, a Renault Zoe 44.2 per cent, and a Nissan Leaf 42.7 per cent. In fact, they list 30 EVs – including Jaguar i-Pace, MINI Electric, VW ID.3, Tesla Model Y, Mercedes EQC, Polestar 2 and many more which have all lost more than 30 per cent.

So if you want an EV, especially as a second car for running around, get stuck into the used market for EVs – you’ll save a fortune.