By Jayson Whittington, Chief Car Editor, Glass’s. Electric vehicles (EVs) are still a scarce sight in auction halls. They have made up less than 0.2% of sold volume so far this year and auction performance can be rather mixed, as can be seen in the chart below which compared the first time conversion rate of EVs, hybrids, diesel and petrol cars.
OEMs therefore tend to remarket EVs to their franchised networks, where dealers have a better understanding of the technology and the customer qualification process that is required to sell the cars on. Manufacturer training programs have been key in the development of successful EV sales activity.
There will come a time when franchised dealers are unable to cope with the volume of used examples entering the used marketplace, albeit this might be some time into the future. Online trade and auction channels will be the likely preferred route for remarketing. It is therefore essential that auction buyers are introduced to and encouraged to try selling EVs.
There have been some positive initiatives. Shoreham Vehicle Auctions in conjunction with the Energy Savings Trust ran a series of training sessions designed to give independent dealership sales staff the knowledge needed to sell EVs, to the customer best suited to buy them. The aim is to give dealers the confidence to start regularly stocking EVs and ultimately to improve auction sales performance, by helping to create demand. This is an initiative that is worth expanding to more buyers across the country.
