Mobility: The electric car has arrived on the used car market

The boom in electric cars in recent years arrives on the used car market. The ownership of Reiner Stromer (BEVS) in the first quarter was 50,423 higher than a year ago. In the meantime, private individuals are buying significantly more used than new electricity, as an analysis by the market observer dat showed. And the numbers could at least rise a bit.

Specifically, the DAT compares the over 50,000 ownerships that normally go to private individuals almost completely, 34,433 new registrations of BEVS in private individuals in the first quarter. For a long time, the proportion of private buyers on the market for new Stromer was unusually high, now it is less than a third – similar to the combustion engines.

There are several reasons for the fact that private customers are now increasingly using the used Stromer. The grown offer is likely to be a central offer. “The range of used electric cars has increased significantly in the past five years: While around 11,825 used Stromer on mobile.de were still listed in March 2020, it was already 85,422 in March 2025,” says a spokesman for the largest German used car exchange. There is also currently an increase compared to the previous year.

Leasing returns drive the offer

Martin Weiss, head of the vehicle assessment at DAT, also sees the offer as a driver: The new car leasing “more and more vehicles” come back to the local used car market. And these vehicles have to be marketed in particular from retail. Therefore, the numbers will continue to rise. Moderately, but they will continue to rise. “

In addition, there is a comparatively low price, because the so -called residual values ​​at BEVS are currently much lower than with burners. A typical three -year -old BEV costs an average of 51.5 percent of the former List recent prize. With diesels it is 62.7 percent, even 64 percent for petrol engines. As a result, used Stromer are now approximately as expensive as comparable combustion engines, although they were now much more expensive.

The price is “as generally among the used car buyers-very important, but it is not the most important reason,” says Dat expert Weiss. He also does not expect any further significant price declines in the used streamers, “since the vehicles that are now coming to the used car market are technically much further than it was a few years ago”.

Clear age difference

Nevertheless, electric cars are still a small niche in the used car market and a quick breakthrough is not in sight. At the moment there are still few older BEV in the vehicle stock, says Weiss. “The market for BEV used cars will remain rather small in the next few years.” Especially with the old used cars, the Stromer is missing – simply because hardly any new Stromer were sold eight or ten years ago. This can also be seen at Mobile.de. The average used Stromer offered there was only about 28.5 months old in March. That was a good four months more than a year earlier, but it was 69.4 months for combustion engines.