Balancing used EV supply and demand
We are currently stuck in a frustrating gap between political targets and the messy reality of running a fleet. History has proved that changing the tax regime is the single most effective way to rewrite corporate procurement habits – the near-total adoption of electric company cars was entirely engineered by the Government lowering Benefit-in-Kind rates to 0%, and the domination of diesel in previous decades began with a focus on linking tax to CO2 emissions. But while changing a tax band can instantly alter driver and fleet preference, it cannot instantly build the physical infrastructure required to run those vehicles.
This friction is becoming critical because the transition is entering its second, much harder phase. For new fleet cars, adoption has already happened on a massive scale. Fleet managers understand the fiscal advantages, and businesses have largely integrated the technology into daily corporate operations. The real bottleneck now lies completely outside the new car market. The focus must shift to the private secondhand buyer, who operates under an entirely different set of rules, lacks corporate subsidies and faces unique practical constraints.
No amount of corporate willingness can overcome the fundamental problem facing a private secondhand driver who cannot plug their vehicle in at home. It is straightforward to choose an electric model if you have a driveway and access to cheap overnight electricity, but it is an entirely different proposition for the thousands of ordinary motorists who live in a terrace or a flat. These buyers cannot absorb volatile public charging tariffs or navigate complex, broken street infrastructure without facing a severe penalty in both time and money.
If the Government wants its transition to succeed, it needs to stop focusing solely on forcing registrations at the new car end of the pipeline. The current framework penalises manufacturers and pushes fleet supply forward, yet it leaves the second-hand retail market to stall. True progress requires shifting the entire regulatory focus away from top-down quotas and directing it toward the local, affordable infrastructure needed to make these vehicles viable for the everyday secondhand motorist.
