TurningCircle
1 November 2026updated 16:05

Photograph: Pexels

Used market

Used electric vans are gaining value while diesel vans slide

Solera cap hpi has used electric small van values up 3.1% against a 2.2% fall for diesel, while the wider used van market had its sharpest monthly cut of 2026.

By The TurningCircle Team 5 min read

Values for used electric small vans rose 3.1% at the three-year, 60,000-mile benchmark in Solera cap hpi's latest LCV market report, with electric medium vans up 1.2%. Diesel vans fell 2.2% over the same age and mileage. The gap between the two is 5.3 percentage points.

The wider market went the other way. Solera cap hpi cut used LCV guide values by 1.9% at three years and 60,000 miles in October, and by the same amount overall. Fleet News reported it as the largest monthly reduction recorded in 2026, taking the cumulative fall in used van guide values to 11.5% for the year.

So the average used van got cheaper. Electric small and medium vans did not. The question worth answering is whether that is a blip in a thin market or the start of something that holds.

The fuel bill is doing the work

Diesel averaged 198.79p a litre across the UK on 1 November, against 172.92p for unleaded, according to RAC Fuel Watch. That is 25.87p more, or 14.96% higher.

For a van, the fuel bill is the operating cost that matters most, because the vehicle is a tool that earns money by the mile. A sole trader covering 1,000 miles a week spends a large multiple of a commuter's fuel budget, and the difference between a diesel van and an electric one compounds across every one of those miles. Diesel crossed two pounds a litre in early October and has stayed close to that level since.

Ken Brown, LCV valuations editor at Solera cap hpi, put the link plainly. "Higher diesel prices are making used electric vans more attractive to operators looking to reduce running costs," he said. He added that the company is seeing more interest in these vehicles.

The used market is where that interest lands first. An operator who wants to cut a fuel bill this quarter can buy a three-year-old electric van for less than the new price of the equivalent diesel, and the saving starts on the first delivery. A fleet replacing vans on a five-year cycle cannot move that fast.

The new market tells a different story

SMMT's September figures show 4,832 battery electric vans registered, a record month and 13.4% up on a year earlier, for a 9.6% share of the market. Year to date the share is 10.8%, from 27,359 electric vans. The Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate target for 2026 is 24%, so the new market is running at 45% of the level required.

Diesel is still 82.3% of new van registrations this year, at 209,416 units. More than eight in ten new vans joining British roads run on diesel, against 27,359 electric ones, even though more than 40 electric van models are on sale and the Plug-in Van Grant is still cutting the purchase price.

That combination is the interesting part. The used market is repricing electric vans upward while the new market remains overwhelmingly diesel. Buyers are not waiting for the new van market to turn before they act on running costs.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said the record uptake "shows manufacturers are delivering, with investment in new models and substantial discounts helping operators make the switch". He then named the obstacle. "Yet, even with high fuel prices, demand remains less than half the mandated level due to higher purchase costs, grid delays and a shortage of van-suitable charging."

Condition is the price you pay for the discount

The 3.1% average hides a spread wider than the car market produces. Solera cap hpi reported that some lower-grade electric vans sold for around half their guide values during the month, and that vans with battery health readings below 90% of original capacity are proving harder to sell.

Brown's explanation is about repair risk rather than range. "Repairs can be expensive and time-consuming, especially when replacement parts are hard to source," he said. "Buyers are factoring those risks into their bids."

That is a market pricing information rather than sentiment. An electric van with a documented battery state of health and clean bodywork attracts the strongest bids. One without that paperwork sells at a discount that can run to thousands. The same logic has already taken hold in used electric cars, where battery health has become the most useful thing a seller can document.

The charging gap has a budget attached

Hawes's list included grid delays and a shortage of van-suitable charging, and those decide whether a cheap used electric van is usable rather than merely affordable. A van that charges overnight at a depot is a straightforward proposition. One that has to find a public charger between jobs is not, because most public charging is built around cars.

There is money moving on that constraint. The second application window for the government's Depot Charging Scheme opened on 28 October and closes on 29 January 2027, part of a £170m programme running to 2030 (Fleet News, 21 October 2026). The scheme part-funds chargepoint installation at fleet depots, which is where the van case is strongest: known routes, a predictable return time, and a vehicle parked in the same bay every night.

That shapes the used value question more than the headline averages suggest. A three-year-old electric van bought by an operator with a depot carries a different risk profile from the same van bought by a tradesperson parking on a street. The first group is the one bidding up the good stock.

What it means if you are buying or selling

If you are selling an electric van, the battery report is now part of the advert in the way a service history always has been. "Vendors with vehicles that need work will have to be realistic about the prices they can achieve," Brown said.

If you are buying, the fuel arithmetic is genuinely favourable and the market has not yet priced all of it in. The risk sits in condition. A cheap electric van that needs a replacement part with a long lead time can cost more than the fuel saving it was bought to capture.

For anyone reading the number as a turning point, two caveats. Guide values are trade valuations rather than transaction prices, and the electric van market is small enough that a few dozen auction results can move a segment average. The direction matches what used electric cars did in October, when electric was the only fuel type to rise, but the car market's move was far smaller, at 0.6%.

What the data does establish is narrower. Diesel vans are now the weak end of the used van market at the same time as diesel is the default choice for new van buyers. Those two facts cannot both stay true indefinitely.

Sources