What Car Depreciates The Least (And Most!)
According to What Car? it seems that electric cars are outperforming diesel and petrol when it comes to holding their value. They conducted a study of over 7,000 cars revealing that electric and hybrid models retain the most value over three years and 30,000 miles, with diesel models depreciating the fastest. Let’s dig a little into the detail and separate the winners and losers.
What Car Holds Its Value?
It's the premium brands that are holding on to their value, in particular, the new Range Rover Evoque lost the lowest percentage over 3 years and 30,000 miles. The much more accessible and affordable Toyota RAV4 was also identified as among the least depreciating models.
What Car? found electrified vehicles retain 47% of their value on average after three years and 30,000 miles, while petrol models were found to retain 43% and diesel models just 40%.
Electric and hybrid vehicles have some of the strongest residual values with models like the new Audi E-tron, Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid and the previously mentioned Toyota RAV4 all retaining more than 63% of their purchase value after three years and 30,000 miles in specific trim configurations.
Should You Buy An Electric Car?
Things seem positive for electric power except that the Renault Zoe in R110 i Dynamique Nav was found to be one of the UK’s worst depreciating cars, holding on to just 26.6% of its value.
The other high depreciators are the Fiat Doblo and Tipo diesel models along with the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer and Peugeot 308 SW diesel.
Having a prestige badge though doesn't protect a car from a drop in value. The Maserati Quattroporte V6 diesel, BMW 420d convertible and Jaguar XJ V6 are also at the bottom end of the chart.
Land Rover, who often find themselves at the wrong end of car reliability surveys, can feel very pleased that the Range Rover Evoque P250 R-Dynamic was rated as the UK’s least depreciating new car, retaining more than 70% of its £38,675 price tag after three years and 30,000 miles.
What Car Should I Buy?
Well, the short term future seems to be more electrified, provided that is, you can afford the very high cost of buying a fully electric or hybrid vehicle. Diesel cars are more affordable, but the values are falling fast. That means as used buys they are great value and smaller petrol engines seem to make more sense as well. Depreciation is always the used car buyer’s friend, so choose carefully.
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