Breakdown and insurance firm the AA says falling secondhand prices for EVs have led to an improved landscape for the transition to electric cars – though the firm also says the “rapid depreciation” EVs are subject to is hampering things.
The firm has designed what it terms an ‘EV readiness index’, which scores eight areas relating to EV sales, running costs and infrastructure on a scale of one to 100.
In its latest assessment of the landscape the firm scores the nation’s EV readiness as being 53.8 for the past three months, up from the 48.8 assessment it gave for Q4 of 2025.
The AA says that a key driver of this improvement has been falling prices for used electric cars, which it says have now dropped below the cost of equivalent petrol vehicles.
The depreciation that is making used electric cars cheaper is also a bad thing, though, as steep depreciation is hitting car makers and the fleet companies that purchase the majority of electric cars, presenting “a significant challenge”.
Away from vicious depreciation and the falling used values that follow it, the AA says charging has improved over the last quarter, awarding the UK’s public infrastructure a score of 43 out of 100, up from the 40 rating it gave this area in the previous quarter.
Maintenance requirements for electric cars, another aspect the AA tracks, remains static with a score of 60 out of 100.
Edmund King, president of the AA, comments: “Lower prices may be good news for motorists looking for a bargain, but if values fall too quickly it becomes unsustainable for fleets and manufacturers who buy most new electric cars in the first place.”
King adds that the government is sending out “mixed messages” but introducing grants for EVs on the one hand, but announcing the forthcoming pay-per-mile road tax for them on the other.
