Electric vehicles (EVs) – the new darling of the automotive industry a few years back and the new must-have toy. But how are they faring now, when the shine has worn off a bit?
Turns out, it’s not so good.
We decided to run some research around the value of EVs for resale, now a few more are coming onto the used car market. And our study shows that EVs have depreciated in value at a staggering rate – losing more than half their value in just three years.
The data suggests that EVs on average will lose 51 percent of their purchase value from 2020 to 2023, compared to just 37 percent for petrol vehicles. This equates to a massive £15,220 loss for EV owners, while petrol vehicles lose £9,901.
Our research used a comparison of new car prices in 2020 against their value now. The 2023 value is based on the average price of cars listed by private sellers or car dealers.
Clearly, the higher the original purchase, the bigger the loss, with the Tesla S model losing an enormous £25,000 in value in just three years. But even the entry level vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, are seeing losses of £13,000. In fact, the entry level cars are often seeing larger percentage decreases in their value, with the Hyndai Ionic losing a whopping 67 percent of its worth.
Partly, this is due to a market correction that has seen new EVs lower their initial purchase price, but the trend of higher rates of depreciation is expected to continue, according to market experts.
In 2020, the Government offered a grant to provide funding of up to 75 percent towards the cost of installing electric vehicle smart charge points at homes across the UK. This helped incentivise car owners to switch to an EV; however these hundreds of pounds saved now look insignificant in comparison to the thousands of pounds lost in value.
Our founder, Nick Zapolski, said: “Our research shows yet another blow for EV owners, on top of many other issues that have come to light recently.
“Not only are the EVs themselves not holding value, the price of electricity itself has zoomed up, meaning running the cars is not as economical as it once was. Home charge points are expensive to install (if you even had the necessary driveway to allow that) and there has been uproar about the availability and reliability of public charge points.
“On top of that, recent decisions made by the Government mean that some of the initial incentives to encourage EV ownership are being discontinued, such as lower tax and free entry into ULEZ zones.
“The Government really needs to take action if it wants to continue to push the idea of EVs onto the consumer, as currently the cons of EV ownership threaten to outweigh the pros.”
EV’s with the biggest depreciation are:
- Hyundai ionic – drop of 67%
- BMW i3 – drop of 64%
- Renault Zoe – drop of 61%
- Nissan Leaf – drop of 58%
- VW ID3 – drop of 55%
- Tesla model S – drop of 46%
- Tesla 3 – drop of 43%
And here’s the full table, so you can see just how much these cars have depreciated in the last few years.
Electric Vehicles
Petrol Cars
But I guess there’s one bit of good news – you’re definitely better buying an EV second-hand!
Take a look at our selection of used cars on finance
