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The number of used electric cars sold through Motorway’s platform more than doubled in Q3 2026 compared with Q3 2025. Dealers placed 29% more bids on EVs than on the average car through the platform, and the average sale price of used EVs increased by 6% compared to the same period last year.
Those are the headline findings from the first Motorway National Car Index, a new quarterly data publication built on sold prices through the platform.
Rob Nicholls, Principal Data Scientist at Motorway, says: “The gap between how quickly EVs lose value against petrol or diesel has narrowed a lot. This quarter, used EVs achieved 6% more than a year ago. A second-hand EV is now very good value, cheap to run, and there are more public chargers than fuel pumps in the UK.”
It’s a view shared on the forecourt. Sam Luscombe, Managing Director of Luscombe Motors, says: “Used EV’s are a more appealing proposition to many retailers now than they have been in the past. With battery degradation concerns proving to be less warranted than initially thought and the soaring cost of petrol and diesel, it’s only natural that demand increases. From a retailers perspective, the market feels like it remains fairly well balanced with more and more retailers now choosing to stock EV’s than a few years ago. We are still actively buying EV’s and have done since 2020/21 although it now feels just like another item of stock.”
Most in demand models
The Tesla Model 3 tops Motorway’s most in-demand list for Q3, ahead of the BMW X5, Mercedes-AMG models, Mercedes-Benz CLA Class and Volkswagen Golf. As a group, the top 10 attracted 32% more bids on average than a typical car on the platform.
The North-South gap narrows
The data also has something to say about where dealers are sourcing from. The North-South pricing gap, long a feature of the used-car market, narrowed sharply in Q3. Sellers in the North East received nearly 10% less than those in the South East a year ago. That gap is now 1.2%. The North East moved from 10th to seventh of 11 mainland regions by average sale price, with prices up 1.1% and volume up 7.2%.
Nicholls attributes much of that shift to Motorway’s transport service opening up regions that were previously harder for dealers to reach: “What this means for sellers outside of major cities is they may get more money now than they used to, due to dealers widening their nets.”
Chinese brands arrive on the the used market
One trend that is still in its early stages is the growing presence of Chinese brands in the used market. Three brands featured in Motorway’s auctions in Q3 2025: BYD, Maxus and Omoda. A year on, six brands featured, with Jaecoo, Ora and Leapmotor joining them.
Luscombe adds, “The likes of Omoda, Jaecoo, Chery, Geeley, BYD are far more likely to induce caution for a retailer. Having seen first-hand the low rate finance offers on new Chinese brand models, twinned with the late plate nature of the stock that is available, it makes the used market difficult at this early stage. That will change however, and Approved Used programmes which are now rolling out will make the used Chinese cars more attractive to retailers.”
The full National Car Index for Q3 is at motorway.co.uk