November 1, 2023

INDICATA tracks the highs and lows of used BEVS in Europe

INDICATA continues to keep a close eye on used BEV trends by analysing its data generated across 13 European countries. And in September there were lots of twists and turns for used BEV values, stock levels and demand.

European used BEV sales increased to 5.0% in September compared with petrol at 34.1% and diesel which slipped to 34.1%, but those figures changed when looking at the age of used BEVs being disposed of.

Up to four years old, petrol remained the best-seller with a 45.8% market share as diesel slipped to just 24.0% with BEVs continuing to struggle taking just 7.8% of sales.

That compared with used cars up to two years old where diesel slipped to just 16.3%, while BEVs accounted for 11.0% with petrol losing 3.2% market share month on month by falling to 42.71%.

At a powertrain level, there was no respite for used BEV prices, which saw a 1.5% month-on-month decline in average prices while used diesels fell by 0.6% fall in prices over the same period, as did petrol prices.

We use Market Days’ Supply to measure the number of selling days there is enough stock to cover, and the higher the number of days, the slower the stock is selling or, the more stock there is to meet current needs.

In September BEVs had an MDS of 91.63 days which is 20.2% improvement in a month and considerably behind diesel at 65.04 days. This made BEVs the slowest-selling powertrain on average.

However, according to our top sellers’ table covering the fastest-selling car models under four years old, the third fastest-selling model amongst all powertrains was the Tesla Model Y, and if you only look at the electric version of the Volkswagen Golf, it became the second fastest-selling model.

Here are some high-level trends for each of the countries in our monthly Market Watch report:

Country	September’s used BEV trends in Europe
Austria	Prices fell by 1.3% which helped them account for 12.3% of sales at under two years of age.
Belgium	BEVS accounted for 8.9% of used sales under two years of age and 13.0% of total stock. Prices fell by 1.3%.
Denmark	BEVS accounted for 35.1% of online B2C used sales of cars under four years’ old and rose to 47.2% for cars under two years old. Tesla’s Model 3 was the market’s top-selling used car.
France	BEV prices fell by 1.5% and are the slowest-selling powertrain. Market Days’ Supply (MDS) was at 130 days and BEVs were selling 76.6% slower than traditional powertrains.
Germany	Germany is one of the few markets where average BEV prices are higher than January 2022. Market Days’ Supply was 92.3 days with prices falling 3.2%. VW’s ID.3 was the fastest-selling used car.
Italy	BEVs remained the slowest selling powertrain with an MDS of 125.8 days. Prices fell by 1.7% with BEVs accounting for a market share at under two years of age of 4.6%.
The Netherlands	BEVs accounted for 19.5% of used cars under 24 months of age. BEVs are now selling much quicker and have an MDS of 108 days. The Cupra Born and Audi Q4 e-tron were the country’s two fastest-selling used cars.
Poland	BEVs are still a hard sell with an MDS of 117.5 days. BEVs account for just 2.5% of sales at four years old and 4.3% at under 24 months of age.
Portugal	BEVs were the third best-selling fuel type up to four years of age at 10.4% and 13.2% at 24 months of age. BEVs along with hybrids experienced the largest price drops in the month.
Spain	BEV prices collapsed by 5.2% which helped reduce the MDS from 184 to 126 days. Most of these sales have happened in the sub-12-month category with BEVs accounting for 5.0% of sales.
Sweden	BEV prices continue to fall, but with sales increasing and MDS improving to 68.7 days, the market could be reaching the point at which prices start to stabilise.
Turkey	The MDS for BEVs was 73.7 days and remains the country’s slowest-selling fuel type. Turkey is one of the slowest nations to embrace BEVs.
UK	Demand is improving with younger used cars, where BEVs accounted for 10.5% of used car sales under two years old. The MDS of just 47.0 days was currently the lowest in Europe. Tesla’s Model Y was the fastest-selling used car.