How Cap HPI Data Shows Some Used Electric Cars Losing 29 Percent of Value

• Cap HPI data shows the Nissan e-NV200 lost 29 percent of its value in a single year, the steepest fall of any used car on the market, with the Subaru Solterra close behind at 28.5 percent.
• Four of the five fastest-depreciating used cars in the UK are electric, costing owners between £2,325 and £6,550 in lost value in twelve months alone.
• A buyer who leases or finances an electric car on a deal that assumes strong resale value could be left owing more than the car is worth when the contract ends.

Four of the five biggest value drops in Britain belong to electric cars

New valuation data from Cap HPI, supplied exclusively to the trade press, shows electric cars dominating the list of Britain’s fastest-depreciating used vehicles. Measuring three-year-old cars with 30,000 miles on the clock against their original price, the Nissan e-NV200 electric van derivative tops the table with a 29 percent fall in value, equivalent to £3,734 lost in a year. The Subaru Solterra follows at 28.5 percent, a £6,550 drop given its higher starting price, with the SsangYong Korando Electric, Lexus UX Electric and MG5 Electric rounding out the top five, each losing between 20 and 23 percent of their value.

Every one of those five cars is electric. For a buyer comparing a used EV against an equivalent petrol or diesel model, that gap in depreciation is not a theoretical risk sitting in a spreadsheet somewhere. It is money that disappears from the car sitting on the driveway, and it lands hardest on anyone who bought the car new, financed it on a deal assuming a certain resale value, or plans to sell privately rather than trade in.

Why electric cars are losing value faster than petrol equivalents

Cap HPI’s own head of valuations described the past year as “a year of two halves” for battery electric vehicles, with heavier downward pressure on prices in the first six months than the second. Several forces are pushing in the same direction at once. Manufacturers have been offering steep discounts on new electric models to hit sales targets under the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, and every discount on a new car drags the resale value of the equivalent used model down with it. Hardly any buyer will pay close to list price for a two-year-old car when a brand new one is available for only slightly more.

A wave of newer, cheaper electric models from Chinese manufacturers has also widened the choice available to used buyers, putting pressure on older electric cars that once had the market largely to themselves. Battery technology has continued to improve too, meaning a three-year-old EV often has meaningfully less range than a current model at a similar price, a gap that counts far more to buyers than the equivalent difference in a petrol engine’s fuel economy over the same period.

What this means if you already own one

An owner who bought one of these models new three years ago and plans to sell privately is facing a blunt reality: the sale price will likely be thousands of pounds below what a dealer valuation tool or a quick mental calculation based on typical depreciation would suggest. Getting an up-to-date valuation from more than one source before listing a car for sale, rather than relying on the figure a dealer offers as part of a trade-in against a new purchase, is the only way to know whether an offer is fair.

The bigger exposure sits with anyone on a finance agreement built around a Guaranteed Minimum Future Value, the figure used in PCP deals to set the final optional payment. If the car’s real market value at the end of the agreement falls below that guaranteed figure, the finance company absorbs the difference and the driver can hand the car back with nothing owed. But a driver who instead chose to buy the car outright at that final payment, believing it to be good value based on the contract’s optimistic projection, risks paying more than the car would fetch on the open market. Checking a car’s current trade valuation before committing to that final payment, rather than assuming the figure set years earlier in the contract still reflects reality, can prevent an expensive mistake.

Not every electric car is depreciating at the same rate

Cap HPI’s data is a reminder that “electric car” is not a single category when it comes to resale value. Models with strong demand, established reliability records and competitive range for their age are holding value far better than niche derivatives, early adopter models aimed at a narrow buyer group, or cars from brands that have gone on to cut prices sharply on their current range. A Nissan Leaf or a well-specified Tesla Model 3 from the same production years has generally held up better than a Nissan e-NV200 or a first-generation Subaru Solterra, both of which sold in much smaller numbers and appeal to a narrower pool of used buyers.

Cap HPI’s valuations team also struck a more optimistic note alongside the depreciation figures, noting that correctly priced electric cars “often sell faster than their ICE counterparts” once the price reflects current market conditions, and represent strong value for buyers willing to accept the depreciation risk in exchange for a lower purchase price. For someone shopping for a used car rather than selling one, today’s steep depreciation on these specific models is tomorrow’s bargain, provided the buyer checks the battery health, remaining warranty and charging costs rather than assuming a cheap price alone makes it a good deal.

What to check before buying or selling a used electric car

A buyer should always ask for a battery health report, either from the selling dealer or through an independent check, as battery degradation affects both range and resale value far more than engine wear affects a petrol car of the same age. Checking how many years and miles remain on the manufacturer’s battery warranty counts just as much as the car’s mileage, as a battery that fails outside that warranty can cost several thousand pounds to replace.

A seller should get at least two independent valuations, one from a dealer trade-in tool and one from a private sale comparison site, before accepting an offer, given how quickly these figures are moving. Anyone close to the end of a PCP agreement on one of the models showing the steepest falls should request an up-to-date settlement figure and an independent valuation several months before the final payment is due, giving enough time to decide whether handing the car back or buying it outright makes more financial sense once the real numbers are on the table.

The wider new car market tells a split story

The scale of the shift becomes clearer against the backdrop of what is happening with new car sales. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders recorded 350,518 new car registrations in September, up 12.1 percent on the same month last year, the strongest September result in nine years. Battery electric cars made up a record 99,199 of those registrations, a 28.3 percent market share and a 36.3 percent jump compared with September the year before, driven in large part by heavy discounting as manufacturers race to hit sales quotas under the government’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate.

Those discounts are the direct link between a booming new EV market and a struggling used one. Every pound knocked off a brand new electric car’s list price to win a sale this month is a pound removed from the resale value of every similar used model already on driveways and forecourts. A buyer shopping new can reasonably celebrate the bargains on offer. An owner who bought the equivalent model two or three years ago, before the current wave of discounting began, is the one absorbing the cost on the other side of that same transaction.

What buyers and owners should do differently from here

For anyone shopping for a used electric car now, the message from Cap HPI’s figures is to treat list depreciation tables as a starting point rather than gospel and to get a live valuation on the specific car, specific mileage and specific battery condition in front of them. The gap between the best and worst performing models in the same broad category can run to ten percentage points or more. A car with a strong remaining battery warranty, healthy charging history and a model that has not been hit by fresh manufacturer discounting is a very different proposition from one without those things, whatever the similarities on paper.

For current owners, the practical response is to stop assuming a car bought new three years ago is worth roughly what an online calculator based on average depreciation suggests. Getting a real valuation now, whether to plan a sale, settle a finance agreement or simply understand the car’s place in a household budget, costs nothing and takes a few minutes through a dealer trade-in tool or a specialist valuation site, and it is the only way to replace a rough estimate with a number that reflects how fast this market is actually moving, as Cap HPI’s data makes clear.

Sources:

• https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/revealed-the-used-cars-that-plummeted-in-2025-and-all-but-one-are-evs/320813
• https://www.smmt.co.uk/record-electric-car-market-powers-bumper-september/