See all Motoring AdviceElectric vehicles (EVs) still feel like the cars of the future, but the fact of the matter is that they’ve been around long enough now for plenty of them to be considered second-hand machines. So, if you’ve got an EV of your own that you’re thinking of upgrading, here’s why we think you should sell it yourself to get the best possible financial return on your wheels.
You’ll get a better price
An obvious one, as it applies pretty much to all second-hand cars, petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric alike. Selling your car to a dealer, or more realistically using it as a part-exchange as you upgrade to something newer, will never get you top price for the vehicle. This is because the dealer will need to wash it, clean it out inside, and then prep it to their own exacting used-car standards before they can put it back on their forecourt as an approved used motor with a warranty. Furthermore, as much as we may not like it, car dealerships are businesses at the end of the day, and they’re not going to take your car from you without making a few Euro on it in the process.
Therefore, if your EV is worth, say, €30,000 on the used marketplace if you sell it yourself, you can expect a dealership to probably offer you no more than €25,000 for it, maybe less, in a part-exchange. You’re basically paying for the convenience of getting rid of your old car in one fell swoop as you pick up the new one, plus the dealer will need to put the car on the forecourt at €30,000 after the aforementioned prep work – in which case, they’re covering the hours they’ve put in and making a little profit on top.
The selling process is more controlled
Although we’ve often advocated the exact opposite of this (i.e., it’s best to think of EVs as cars, not as something a breed apart), it’s clear that people who happily use EVs in these earlier stages of their development are not necessarily ‘petrolhead enthusiasts’. To that end, they might want to ask different questions of a seller (you) about what the car’s like to live with, how it charges, what it is costing to run on a home wallbox, any particular foibles or peculiarities of the vehicle, and more. Answers to these will put the prospective buyers’ minds at rest, and this information certainly wouldn’t be forthcoming from your average used-car dealer who is merely shifting another unit on through their sales system, so having a more open chat with a buyer looking to pick up a used EV could help with getting a better price and a quicker sale.
Do your research to get yourself the ‘bare’ minimum
In our rough example above, we mentioned that your used EV might be worth €30,000 on the open market. If you’ve done your research and you know that, for the age and mileage of your car, that €30,000 is about the average price for a similar model, rather than a top figure, then you might want to ensure that the sale eventually comes in at €30,000. You can therefore realistically price your car a little higher, if you wish, so that once negotiations take place with any potential buyer, you can let them haggle you down to your preferred price and everyone wins – they think they have saved some money, you get the price you want. The key to this, though, is pricing the car fairly, so that you don’t put buyers off in the first place with an unrealistic asking price.
Flexibility of viewings
One way of getting a quick sale and the best price for your car is to get viewings for the vehicle booked in ASAP. If you sell privately, you can tailor meetings with prospective purchasers around your working/private life, potentially sorting viewers for ‘out of hours’ times. Keep these reasonable – no one wants to buy or sell a car at midnight, for example – and you will get viewers coming to look at your car sooner rather than later. Your helpfulness in this regard will also further put the buyers’ minds at ease, which could in turn lead to a more generous offer on your car.
If you know your EV onions, you can really ‘sell’ it
There’s a difference between estate agents who enthusiastically guide people around houses during viewings, and ones who just gesture lazily at each room as you walk around – the former get more sales. Well, it’s the same with used cars, especially ones which require a degree of specialist knowledge like EVs; so if you did loads of research on your car before buying it yourself, looking at its range and its charging speeds and its reliability and its rolling efficiency and so much more, you can then relay this information on to a potential buyer in clear terms, explaining why your EV is a better bet than, say, a similar model from a different manufacturer. The enthusiasm for the product in question will help realise a better sale price in the end.