The ultimate guide to retailing electric vehicles
If you’ve never sold an electric vehicle or you’re just starting to get to grips with EV’s then this guide is for you. And if you’re sceptical about EV’s, we hope this guide encourages you to see EV’s in a different light. After all, they are the past, present and future of automotive.
Speaking of the past, here’s a brief history of the EV…
Contrary to popular belief, EV’s are not a new phenomenon. The first EV made its debut in 1884. But as other technologies emerged during that time, the early EV’s were dealt a hammer blow by the launch of Henry Ford’s Model T, which was powered by fossil fuels but was half the price of an EV at the time. It made car ownership more affordable for the masses and set off a chain of events that led the world down a totally different path.
The first production EV built in London in 1884
The return of the EV
We now of course know that internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles have an extremely detrimental impact to the health of our planet, which is why the EV is making a comeback to reclaim its rightful place in our industry. Whilst the government set a deadline of 2030 for EV’s to become the primary vehicles sold, the impact on retailers will hit much sooner than 2030. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. This guide aims to give you all the key detail to help you make the best decision for your business.
Why you need to be selling an EV right now?
It’s happening now, and change is coming sooner than you think
Much has been made of the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles. So, you’d be forgiven for thinking that EVs won’t really take off until the end of the decade and that there’s no need to be planning on how to retail an EV just yet.
This is simply not the case.
Right now, new alternative fuelled vehicles are outselling traditional ICE vehicles with electric vehicles being the only fuel type to see a year-on-year increase in registrations.
In fact, such is the growth in new car sales that over 50% of all new cars hitting the road in 2026 will be electric.
Demand for new EVs of our marketplace has seen massive growth in recent years, with one in five new car searches and over one in ten new van searches now for an electric model.
So, there is plenty of demand for electric vehicles from new car buyers.
But what about demand for used vehicles?
Used electric vehicle demand has followed the same trajectory as new demand, with demand seeing rapid growth. In fact, demand for used EVs has doubled in the last year so the buyers are certainly there.
And it’s not like they are taking an age to shift from forecourts. Used electric vehicles are now the fastest selling of any fuel type, taking an average of 24 days to sell, compared to 31 days for petrol.
So, it’s all good news and things are only set to get better as we see new and exciting models entering the market, with a new electric model launching every 10 days this year, helping to bring more range for EV buyers to choose from in both the immediate new and used market in the next few years.
Such is the growth in the EV market that by 2026 over 40% of 1–3-year-old available stock will be electric. So, if you’re not engaging with EVs now, you will soon be missing out on a massive proportion of available stock.
What you need to do?
You don’t need to radically change your business; an electric vehicle is still just a vehicle whether it’s a van or car. The processes you have in place for sourcing and selling vehicles still apply here but there are a few differences that if you master, will help you to profit from the EV revolution.
How to source the right EV’s
Just like any vehicle you acquire, it’s vital you identify the right EV’s and pay the right price for them. We hear feedback from many retailers that EV’s are too expensive to source at auction. However, a closer look reveals that this is mostly due to EV’s having a higher retail cost, so there is still significant profit opportunity for EV’s even though their trade price may be higher than the equivalent petrol or diesel vehicle.
Use these questions and recommended data tools to help you make the right decisions when sourcing EV’s.
Market Health by fuel type for the last 12 months
Market Health by fuel type for the last 3 months
Is there demand for EV’s?
To identify the right EV’s, let’s start at the top with the help of your Market Insight tool. It shows you a ‘Market Health’ rating which gives you a simple barometer of supply and demand. You can filter by make, body type, fuel type, age band and then view it nationally or for your local area. At the time of writing, we can see that the Market Health nationally for EV’s over the past 12 months is +45% vs petrol which is -4% and diesel which is -5%, respectively. Over the past 3 months, the Market Health for EV’s is +17% vs -26% for petrol and -28% for diesel, respectively. So that immediately tells us that there’s an opportunity to satisfy consumer demand.
Which EV’s should I buy?
Again, this is where Market Insight gives you so much power to make better informed decisions. If we apply a filter specifically for EV’s, we can then start to spot trends emerging. For example, we can see that the Market Health is drastically different across different brands.
We can then look at the Market Health by different age bands. Here we can see that overall, there’s significant interest in EV’s up to 1 year old, undoubtedly due to volume of models that have entered the market in the last two years. But there’s also strong Market Health for 5–10-year-old EV’s, with many people now seeking more affordable means of making the switch to an EV.
It’s worth noting that this is for the whole EV market overall. More actionable trends will start to emerge as you add more filters. For example, if we filter solely by Nissan, we can see much deeper insight into where the opportunities exist for the Nissan Leaf, to help inform our sourcing decisions.
What should I pay to source EV’s?
Now that you’ve identified the EV’s you want to source, you need to know what to pay for it before you buy it. The key point here is that your pricing strategy for EV’s should be no different to the recommended approach for all vehicles...always work retail-back. That means using the live retail price for the vehicle and working backwards from there, accounting for your prep costs* and other associated costs to give you the best view of what of what to pay for the EV to achieve your desired margin. That way, you’ll never overpay and minimise your risk of losing margin. You can use your Retail Check tool for cars, or retail valuations for vans, to see the retail price quickly and easily for any vehicle, anytime, wherever you are. Using this simple retail-back example means you’ll never knowingly overpay to source vehicles, increasing your chances of making a healthy margin.
We can then look at the Market Health by different age bands. Here we can see that overall, there’s significant interest in EV’s up to 1 year old, undoubtedly due to volume of models that have entered the market in the last two years. But there’s also strong Market Health for 5–10-year-old EV’s, with many people now seeking more affordable means of making the switch to an EV.
It’s worth noting that this is for the whole EV market overall. More actionable trends will start to emerge as you add more filters. For example, if we filter solely by Nissan, we can see much deeper insight into where the opportunities exist for the Nissan Leaf, to help inform our sourcing decisions.
*Speaking of prep costs, we appreciate that might be a bit of an unknown for you with EV’s. Read on to find out more.
Checklist and recommended tools to help you source EV’s
· Use Market Insight to give you a birds-eye view of supply and demand to spot key trends for different makes, models, body types, age bands – nationally and in your local area.
· Take a retail-back approach to ensure you never knowingly overpay to source vehicles.
· Use Retail Check to get a view of the exact vehicles retail price to inform your buy price (using the retail-back approach).
· Complete this Retailer Performance Masterclass dedicated to EV’s to give you even more insight and knowledge.
How to successfully sell EV’s
Our research shows that just 70% of retailers rate themselves as ‘average’ or ‘poor’ at selling EV’s. But for the most part, selling an EV is very similar to any other vehicle. You need to advertise the vehicle with lots of great images (paying particular attention to key EV features such as range and charge times), a video, a great description that explains what makes the vehicle unique, and a snappy attention grabber. Start with the basics.
The key difference in the sales process is the need to educate buyers about EVs. Almost all buyers understand the ownership experience of an ICE vehicle. But buyers are less familiar with the EV ownership experience. So, you need to be able to answer buyer’s questions and educate them on the EV ownership experience.
Make sure your team are able to answer all questions about EV ownership including questions about charging
Your sales team needs to be able to answer questions such as:
· How do I charge it?
· How much is it to charge?
· What is the range?
· How often will I need to charge?
Product knowledge is essential then and one way we have seen successful EV retailers achieve this is to have their sales team answer questions based on experience. So, our top tip is to have your sales team live the life of an EV owner by having them use an EV for a period. This will enable them to experience the benefits of EV ownership first hand and more effectively sell EVs.
When it comes to charging, your team need to show buyers the tools available to help with charging to alleviate any concerns. Look at whether a home charger is suitable for the buyer and guide them through potential options. Be sure to point them in the direction of charge point finding tools such as ZapMap so that they know how to find a charge point when travelling long distances.
Checklist and recommended tools to help you sell EV’s
· Retailer Performance Masterclass dedicated to EV’s to give you even more insight.
· Check out these examples from Drive Green and Wisely Automotive to see what great EV selling looks like.
· ZapMap gives you an instant way to answer buyers questions about where their nearest charging station is.
Servicing and aftersales for EV’s
Fully electric cars don’t need servicing and maintenance like an ICE vehicle does. There’s no oil to change and there are far fewer moving parts. They have less wear and tear, less servicing requirement, less warrantable repairs – all representing a reduced opportunity for aftersales revenue and the challenge for motor dealers will be to find replacement revenue streams. However, this reduced traditional service revenue may be offset by improved customer retention rates, which would have a positive impact on aftersales revenue and net profits. Improvements in customer retention is proven to improve dealership profitability.
Auto Trader’s stance on EV’s
We firmly believe EV’s are the present and future of the automotive industry. However, we know that significant investment must be made into infrastructure nationwide to make that vision a reality. We also know that more needs to be done to make EV’s affordable for the masses, not just the wealthy. For more information on the EV market, check out our Road to 2030 report.
Is there a question you have about retailing EVs? If so let us know in the comments and we’ll add the answer to the guide.