Defying trends seen elsewhere in the market, Auto Trader has found that half of the used cars currently making up its national top 10 fastest selling list are diesel, whilst just three are petrol and two electric.
Retaining its number one position, the SEAT Alhambra (2016 diesel, automatic) is currently the fastest selling used car in the UK, with the potential to leave forecourts in just 23 days.
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The index highlighted the growing appetite amongst consumers for affordable electric vehicles (EV) with the Renault Zoe taking both 2nd (2015 electric, automatic – 25 days) and 4th place (2016 electric, automatic – 26 days).
The index is based on analysis of over 1.9 million vehicles each day, including 90,000 vehicle updates and an average of 19,000 vehicles added or removed from Auto Trader. Determined by live supply and demand in the market, the metric provides a 1-100 retail rating along with the potential days a used vehicle could sell if priced to the live retail market.
For alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFV), the Renault Zoe is miles ahead of its closest rival. The 2015 and 2016 automatic variants sit in first (25 days) and second place (26 days), with the 2018 Kia Niro (petrol hybrid, automatic) in third, taking an average of 31 days. At the very bottom of the AFV pack, the 2019 Volkswagen e-Golf is selling at a less impressive average of 135 days.
Commenting on the results, Auto Trader’s director of commercial products, Karolina Edwards-Smajda, said: “Our data continues to highlight two important trends, not least the ongoing resilience of modern Euro 6 diesel cars which despite the negative rhetoric, remain a popular choice among used car buyers.
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By GlobalData“What’s more, in case there were any doubts, we can see there is clearly a growing market for second-hand low emission vehicles. Not only are EVs consistently featuring on our Fastest Selling Index, but since October last year we’ve seen a 59% increase in searches for electric vehicles on our marketplace. As awareness, performance and the necessary infrastructure improves, we can only expect to see this appetite increase.”
