High fuel prices increase residual values ​​of used electric cars

High fuel prices make used electric cars more expensive. This is what the market observer Deutsche Automobil Treuhand (DAT) concludes from the residual values ​​of used cars. From May to August, the residual values ​​for three-year-old electric cars rose by 1.4 percentage points. At the same time, the residual values ​​for gasoline vehicles fell by 0.4 percentage points, and those for diesel vehicles even fell by 1.1 percentage points.

The percentage residual values ​​for electric cars are still lower than for combustion engines. According to DAT, for pure electric cars (BEV) it is on average just under 52 percent of the new list price, for diesel cars it is 58 percent and for gasoline cars it is 59 percent. However, the gap has narrowed significantly in the past year. As recently as November 2025, electric cars were still at a good 48 percent of their new list price after three years, but gasoline cars were just under 63 percent and diesel cars at a good 61 percent.

“The most important driver for the decision to adopt electromobility is likely to be fuel prices,” said the DAT. These would have caused increased demand for used and new electric cars. In the meantime, the supply of used electric cars was relatively low.

Diesels stand longer

Market observers have also noticed significantly reduced downtimes for electric cars. While it took a lot longer for a dealer to sell an electric car than a combustion engine in May and the months before, this ratio has now changed. Instead, diesel engines are now having a hard time and have 92 downtime days. For petrol cars there are 84, for electric cars only 74.

According to market observers, the fact that the effect only sets in after May and not with the start of the high fuel prices in March is probably due to the fact that a car purchase usually has a certain lead time. In addition, as the crisis continued, it became clear that the high prices were not a short episode. The prices therefore became more important for car buyers.

Electric cars still only play a small role on the used market. However, it is growing: in August, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, they accounted for 5.3 percent of all ownership transfers, compared to 3.9 percent a year ago.