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Which EVs Actually Hold Their Value: 2026 Depreciation Data

August 24, 2026· Wise EV

Depreciation is the largest single cost of owning an electric car, and it dwarfs every grant on this blog. A €40,000 EV that keeps half its value over three years has cost you €20,000 before you have paid for a single kilowatt-hour. No incentive scheme in Europe comes close to that number. The good news for anyone buying used in 2026 is that somebody else already paid it.

This post is about who pays, how much, and which cars have stopped losing money.

Table of contents

Quick summary

MarketUsed EV average price3-year value retainedSource date
UK£24,946BEVs retail 9.5% cheaper than ICE at 3 yearsAug / Apr 2026
Germanyn/a52% (petrol 58%, diesel 56%)Oct 2025
France€33,278 (under 3 years)Loses 45% to 55% over 3 yearsApr / Mar 2026
Spain€30,588Below 50% (petrol 58%)Apr 2026
Ukrainen/aImport tax reset prices from 1 Jan 2026May 2026

The two numbers that get confused

Almost every depreciation article mixes up two different things, and they rank cars in different orders.

Percentage retained is what the trade cares about. It tells you how a model performs against its own list price.

Absolute money lost is what comes out of your account.

Take Germany's figure. The Deutsche Automobil Treuhand data reported in October 2025 puts a three-year-old EV at 52% of its original price, against 58% for a comparable petrol car and 56% for a diesel. Apply that 52% to a €50,000 car and the owner is down €24,000. Apply the same 52% to a €25,000 car and the owner is down €12,000. Identical percentage, half the money.

That is why the "best residual value" lists in the motoring press are not shopping lists. A Tesla Model Y forecast at 56% of a high list price still loses more euros in three years than a small hatchback at 45% of a low one. If you are choosing between two cars you can afford, compare the money. If you are choosing between two trims of the same car, compare the percentage.

Our comparison tool runs both, side by side, on the actual asking price rather than the list price.

What the 2026 data actually shows

The story changed in 2026, and it changed unevenly.

In the UK, cap hpi's April 2026 market overview put battery electric trade prices around £4,019 lower than equivalent combustion cars at three years and 30,000 miles, a gap of roughly 15%. At retail the same analysis showed BEVs 9.5% cheaper at three years old and 15% cheaper at four. The used electric discount is real and it is still there.

What also happened is that the floor arrived. Auto Trader's 9 July 2026 release recorded used EV prices up 1.6% year on year, the first annual growth since 2022, with the average used EV at £24,662 and the three to five year old cohort at £19,295, up 8.9% and selling in 21 days.

A month later it accelerated. The 7 August 2026 release, covering July, put used EV prices up 3.3% year on year, the strongest annual growth on their record, with the average at £24,946 and stock turning in 25 days. The three to five year old cohort was up 10.2%.

Volume followed. The SMMT reported on 11 August 2026 that 110,761 used battery electric cars changed hands in the second quarter, up 67.0% year on year, out of 2,009,318 used cars in total. That is 5.5% of the market.

Two things are true at once here. Used EVs are still cheaper than equivalent petrol cars, and they are no longer falling. For a first-time buyer that is close to the ideal moment: the discount survived, the freefall did not.

Spain went the other way in the same period. GANVAM's Q1 2026 figures show nearly-new cars of up to one year old averaging €23,865, down 9.8% on the year, with pure electric retaining under 50% at three years against 58% for petrol. Their published used EV average was €30,588 in April 2026. Spanish EV values were still adjusting downward while British ones were bottoming out.

Which EVs hold value best

Two kinds of evidence exist and they answer different questions.

Forecasts tell you what a car you buy new should be worth later. Bähr and Fess published a three-year, 60,000 km forecast through Autobild on 3 June 2026: Tesla Model Y at 56%, Tesla Model 3 at 53%, Mini Aceman at 53%, Renault Twingo E-Tech at 50%, Mercedes-Benz CLA with EQ technology at 50%. A 23 July 2026 update from the same house nudged the Model Y to 57%. Their analyst attributes the ranking to brand image, model substance and technical maturity, particularly range and charging speed.

Realised prices tell you what already happened to cars on the road. Auto Trader's July 2026 data named the BMW i3 as a used electric riser, up 10.8% year on year. A car that stopped production in 2022 is going up in price, which tells you something about how buyers value a compact, well-built, easy-to-live-with EV once the early depreciation is behind it.

By brand, the German AutoScout24 summary of DAT data puts Tesla at 55% to 60% retained after three years, German premium marques at 50% to 55%, Korean brands at 48% to 53%, and volume European manufacturers at 45% to 50%.

In France, market commentary in March 2026 citing Autovista Group grouped the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, as the strongest holders, with the Peugeot e-208 and Renault Zoe needing careful pricing to move at all. For the Zoe there is a specific trap: cars sold with a leased battery rather than an owned one are worth materially less, because the buyer inherits a monthly bill. Check which version you are looking at before you compare prices.

What destroys value fastest

Three patterns show up across every market we looked at.

Being expensive and new. Auto Trader's July 2026 index put the BMW i5 down 16.1% year on year and the Peugeot E-3008 down 13.9%. Large, recently launched, high-list-price EVs are where the losses concentrate, because new-car discounting on the current model pulls the used one down with it.

Being replaced. The moment a manufacturer launches a version with meaningfully more range or faster charging, the previous one reprices. Bähr and Fess name technical maturity directly, and it shows up as a step change rather than a gentle slope.

Being bought new at all. France makes this arithmetic unusually clear. The Avere-France and Mobilians barometer for Q1 2026, built on AAA Data, put a used EV under three years old at €33,278 against €37,498 for a new one before incentives and €34,781 after them. An 11% gap before bonuses, 4% after. For combustion cars the equivalent gap is around 18%. When incentives compress the new price that hard, the used car has almost nothing left to discount, and its owner absorbed the difference.

That French figure is the single most useful number in this post for anyone shopping in a market with generous new-car support. It also explains the 151 days the average used EV spent on the market there in Q1 2026.

If you want the model-level failure modes rather than the price ones, we covered those separately in used EVs to avoid in 2026.

Battery health is now part of the price

Depreciation on an EV is no longer only about the badge. Geotab's January 2026 study of more than 22,700 electric vehicles across 21 makes and models put average degradation at 2.3% per year, up from 1.8% in their 2024 work. Cars relying on DC fast charging above 100 kW ran up to 3.0% a year, roughly double those charging mainly on lower-power AC at around 1.5%. Hot climates added about 0.4% a year.

In August 2026 the same firm reported the resale consequence: vehicles with documented, verified battery health achieved about 4% higher resale value on average, and up to 9% on some models.

That is a real number attached to a piece of paper. Get the state of health report.

ADAC's April 2026 used EV guidance gives usable thresholds for what a healthy battery should read at a given mileage: at least 92% at 50,000 km, 88% at 100,000 km, 84% at 150,000 km and 80% at 200,000 km. Most current manufacturer warranties run eight years or 160,000 km down to 70% usable capacity, with older cars often on five years or 100,000 km. A car below those ADAC lines is not necessarily broken, but it is a price negotiation.

There is more detail on reading a battery report in our guide to used EV battery health.

Country by country

United Kingdom. Values found a floor in 2026 and used volume is growing fast, with annual price growth reaching 3.3% in July. The used EV discount to petrol remains around 9.5% at three years at retail. Supply is the thing to watch, since the cars now hitting the market were registered during the 2022 and 2023 fleet boom.

Germany. The DAT three-year retention figure of 52% against 58% for petrol is the number to plan around, and the used market is deep: ADAC counted roughly 77,000 used EV listings on mobile.de and about 35,000 on AutoScout24 in April 2026. That much supply keeps prices comfortable for buyers and painful for sellers.

France. Compressed new-car pricing is squeezing used values from above. A used EV under three years old averaged €33,278 in Q1 2026 while transactions rose 27% year on year to 50,868. Watch the gap between the bonus-adjusted new price and the used ask before you commit.

Spain. Still adjusting. Pure electric sat below 50% retained at three years in Q1 2026 while petrol held 58%, and even non-plug-in hybrids managed 66%. Used EV sales grew 48.8% year on year, so demand is arriving faster than prices have settled. Spanish buyers currently have the best negotiating position of the five markets.

Ukraine. The whole depreciation calculation reset on 1 January 2026, when the VAT exemption on imported EVs ended. Imports now carry 20% VAT on customs value plus €1 per kWh of battery capacity, with import duty still at 0%. A 40 kWh Nissan Leaf at around $17,000 customs value now costs roughly $3,600 to $3,700 to clear. April 2026 used EV imports fell 54% year on year to 2,208 units, with the Leaf, Tesla Model Y and Model 3 leading. Cars already in the country before the change hold a tax advantage that newly imported ones do not, and any price guide written before 2026 is wrong.

How to buy the depreciation instead of paying it

The steepest part of the curve is over by year three. That is where a first-time buyer should be shopping.

  1. Target three to five years old. In the UK that cohort was up 10.2% year on year by July 2026, rising rather than falling.
  2. Compare money lost, not percentage retained. A cheaper car at a worse percentage often costs less to own.
  3. Demand a battery state of health report and check it against the ADAC thresholds above. It is worth about 4% on resale.
  4. Check whether the battery is owned or leased, particularly on a Renault Zoe.
  5. Look at what is about to be replaced. A model facing a longer-range successor next year will reprice.
  6. Do not ignore the local tax position. Grants and road tax change the maths, and we mapped those in used EV incentives across Europe.
  7. Set a budget band, then compare within it. Our comparison tool is built for exactly this: put two real listings side by side and see running costs and value retention together.

If your budget is tight, the models that make sense at the bottom of the market are in the best used EVs under €15,000.

FAQ

Do electric cars still depreciate faster than petrol cars?

In most markets, yes, but the gap is narrowing and in the UK it stopped widening. cap hpi put UK BEV retail prices 9.5% below equivalent combustion cars at three years in April 2026. In Spain the gap was wider, with electric under 50% retained against petrol at 58%. In Germany the DAT figure was 52% against 58%.

Which electric car holds its value best?

On three-year forecasts published in June 2026, the Tesla Model Y led at 56%, with the Model 3 and Mini Aceman at 53%. On realised used prices, the BMW i3 rose 10.8% year on year in the UK to July 2026. Different questions, different answers.

Are used EV prices going to keep falling?

They stopped falling in the UK in 2026, and by July prices were up 3.3% year on year, the strongest annual growth Auto Trader has recorded for the segment. Spain was still adjusting downward in Q1 2026. Nobody can promise the direction from here, and anyone who does is guessing.

Does battery degradation actually affect resale price?

Yes, and it is now measurable. Geotab found cars with verified battery health documentation resold for about 4% more on average, up to 9% on some models. Average degradation runs 2.3% per year, faster with heavy DC fast charging.

Is it better to buy a three-year-old EV or a new one?

Financially, three years old is usually the better buy, since the first owner absorbed roughly half the value. The exception is a market where new-car incentives have compressed the gap, as in France, where a used EV under three years cost only about 4% less than a new one after bonuses in Q1 2026.

Does the Renault Zoe battery lease matter for resale?

Yes. A Zoe sold with a leased battery carries a monthly obligation for the next owner, which pulls its price below an equivalent owned-battery car. Confirm which you are buying.

References

All figures verified 24 August 2026.

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