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Used car values fell again in October, and electric cars were the only ones to rise
Solera cap hpi's October read shows values down 1.7%, about £350, as new car discounts and wholesale supply bite. Battery electric values rose 0.6%.
Used car values at three years and 60,000 miles fell 1.7% in October, about £350, according to Solera cap hpi's monthly read of the market. That is a bigger fall than the 1.4% seasonal average for the month, and it happened while battery electric cars moved the other way, rising 0.6%, or £70.
The monthly change is small enough to disappear into the noise. The reason it matters is the composition: the overall market fell, and every fuel type except electric fell with it.
Why the market softened
Two things are pushing in the same direction. Wholesale supply has risen, with sold trade volumes for cars aged three to five years almost 20% higher than in the same period last year, which gives dealers more choice at auction and less reason to pay up. At the same time, discounting and pre-registered stock in the new car market are pulling buyers towards new cars and dragging nearly new values down with them.
Chris Plumb, head of current car valuation at Solera cap hpi, described both effects in the same breath. "We've seen more stock coming into the wholesale market during October, while attractive new car offers are making life harder for used car retailers," he said. He added that buyers remain active but are being more selective, and that vendors are having to be more realistic about prices.
The fuel type split
The gap between the categories is the most useful part of the data:
- Battery electric: up 0.6%, about £70
- Hybrid: down 1.8%
- Plug-in hybrid: down 1.9%
- Petrol: down 2.2%
- Diesel: down 2.6%
Among individual models, the Vauxhall Mokka Electric rose 4%, about £370, the Kia e-Niro 3%, £385, the Peugeot e-2008 2.4%, £250, and the Kia EV6 2%, £380. The pattern across those four is that they sit at the affordable end of the electric market rather than the premium end.
Plumb's explanation is demand rather than supply. "Used electric cars are performing well, particularly at the more affordable end of the market," he said. "Buyers are becoming more comfortable with the technology, and high fuel prices are encouraging more people to consider switching." He also made the point that matters most for anyone worried about a glut: values are improving even as more electric cars reach the used market.
Electric cars are still selling fastest
The same data tracks how long cars take to sell at retail, and electric cars are the quickest. Battery electric models averaged 32 days in October, against 35 for petrol and 38 for diesel.
Electric disposal volumes year to date have already passed the whole of 2025 by 13%, and electric cars still need fewer auction entries than any other fuel type. That combination, more cars coming through and fewer attempts needed to sell each one, is the clearest sign that the used electric market has found its level.
Across 2026 so far, battery electric values are down 4.7%, against 8% for petrol, 9.9% for plug-in hybrids and 11.7% for diesel. The headline is a falling market. The detail is that electric cars have fallen least, and that the cars doing best in October were the ones priced for buyers rather than for collectors.
What it means if you are buying or selling
For a seller, October was not the month to hold out. The trade is buying, but it is pricing for a market with more stock than last year and discounts on the new car forecourt. For a buyer, the softening is an opportunity, and the electric cars holding their value are the ones with the most common specification at the most accessible price.
The mechanics behind the fall are worth understanding, because they explain why nearly new cars suffer most. A pre-registered car is one a dealer registers to hit a manufacturer target and then sells on at a discount, and it enters the used market as a one-owner car with delivery mileage. Manufacturer discounts do the same work from the other direction. Either way, a buyer comparing a new car with a six-month-old one sees a smaller gap than the price lists suggest, and the older car has to fall further to stay attractive.
Solera cap hpi expects more of the same before the year is out, with further pressure on values as wholesale supply increases towards the end of the year. That is the normal seasonal pattern and this year it arrives with more stock behind it than usual.
The year-to-date spread is the number that matters to anyone setting residual values. A leasing company pricing a three-year contract today is working from an expectation of where the car will sit in 2029, and a market where diesels have lost 11.7% in ten months while electric cars lost 4.7% changes the monthly cost of the two by more than the difference in list price. That is the mechanism by which used values feed back into what dealers can offer on new cars, and it explains why the trade watches this data more closely than buyers do.
Anyone shopping at three years old should treat the headline figure as an average across the whole market and look at the fuel type that applies to the car they want. Our September read of the same data shows how the fuel-type split has moved month to month, and our piece on the 300-mile sweet spot covers what buyers say they actually want from a used electric car. The depreciation comparison sets out where the biggest losses have been over a longer period.