The UK's second-hand electric car market had its best quarter in two years. SMMT figures for the second quarter of 2026 put used battery-electric transactions at 110,761, up 67 per cent on the same quarter a year earlier, and a record 5.5 per cent of all used car sales.
That is the strongest quarterly growth the fuel type has posted since the first quarter of 2024, and it happened inside a used market that barely grew at all.
The numbers
| Q2 2026, UK used cars | Figure |
|---|---|
| Used BEV transactions | 110,761 |
| BEV change year on year | +67% |
| BEV share of used market | 5.5% (record) |
| Total used transactions | 2,009,318 |
| Total change year on year | +0.7% |
The overall market grew 0.7 per cent to 2,009,318 transactions — the first second quarter since 2021 to clear two million. Used EVs did the heavy lifting: a segment holding 5.5 per cent of the market cannot lift the total on its own, but growth of 67 per cent in one line item is what covered a drop-off in petrol and diesel demand.
Two things pushing at once
The SMMT attributes part of the pattern to fuel prices. Demand peaked in the months that saw the largest increases at the pump, which is the most direct mechanism there is for moving a used-car buyer between fuel types: the running-cost gap stops being an abstraction and starts being a number on a receipt.
The other half of the explanation is the comparison base. Used EV demand a year earlier was relatively weak, partly because of the vehicle excise duty changes that removed the electric exemption and gave buyers a reason to hesitate. Growth of 67 per cent against a soft quarter is not the same claim as 67 per cent against a strong one, and the SMMT says so.
Why used volume is the number that matters to owners
New-car registrations tell you what fleets and higher-income private buyers are doing under the influence of company-car tax and the ZEV mandate. Used volume tells you whether ordinary buyers spending their own money will take an electric car — and it is the only channel through which most drivers will ever get one.
It also closes a loop that has troubled the market for two years. Weak used demand meant weak residual values, and weak residuals raised lease costs on new cars and made fleets nervous about writing electric into their replacement cycles. Demand at this level pushes in the opposite direction. The stock is arriving regardless — three-year-old cars from the 2023 registration peak are coming off lease whether or not anyone wants them — so the question was always whether there would be buyers waiting.
For this quarter, there were, in record numbers.
Where Tesla sits in this
Tesla has more riding on used electric demand in Britain than any other maker, because it put more of the cars there. In June 2026 the Model Y and Model 3 were the UK's two best-selling new cars outright — 6,765 and 5,408 registrations against 5,284 for the third-placed Ford Puma. Tesla ships to the UK in batches, so one month overstates the trend, but a large share of the three-year-old electric stock reaching the used market from here will wear a Tesla badge.
That makes the residual loop above a Tesla story specifically. A Model 3 owner weighing a private sale, and a lease customer quoted a payment built on a projected end-of-term value, are both pricing off the demand this quarter measured.
What to watch next
Two things would confirm this is a trend rather than a fuel-price artefact. The first is whether the share holds when pump prices ease. The second is what happens to used EV pricing: rising transaction volume alongside stabilising prices would signal a market finding its level, while volume bought only with steep discounts would signal something else. The next quarterly figures will start to answer it.