Used EV values are rising, and that changes the repair maths
Seven of the ten most popular used EVs gained value in the first half of 2026, while every one of the fastest-falling models burned petrol or diesel. When the asset is worth more, writing it off makes less sense.
Something shifted in the used car market this year. In the first half of 2026, seven of the ten most popular used EVs rose in price: the Skoda Enyaq up 10% to £22,576, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 up 9%, the BMW iX3 up 7%. Meanwhile, every one of the ten fastest-depreciating used cars ran on petrol or diesel.
Twelve months earlier, the picture was inverted: EVs made up eight of the ten fastest fallers. The analysts behind the data credit rising fuel prices and EV prices having found their floor. Whatever the mix of causes, the direction is clear: the market has started pricing used electric cars as assets with life left in them, rather than depreciation risks to be moved on.
Why this reaches the claim file
Used values sit underneath every total-loss decision. A low-value EV tips into write-off at almost any battery question. Add £2,000 to its value and it becomes worth assessing the pack, pricing a repair and answering the battery question properly.
The same logic runs through the fleet ledger. Rising used values change end-of-contract economics, remarketing decisions, and the case for keeping a vehicle in service with a repaired or regenerated pack instead of cycling it out.
Values follow confidence, and confidence follows evidence.
A used EV’s price is, at bottom, a bet on its battery. What moved this market is confidence in that bet: batteries proving more durable than the early write-off patterns suggested, and buyers gradually learning to trust them.
Evidence is what keeps that confidence compounding. Every pack assessed on fact rather than assumption, on what it’s been through and what it still holds, feeds a market that can price electric vehicles on knowledge. That evidence is made at the point where packs are opened and measured properly: on a precision disassembly line, pack by pack, with the data returned to the chain.
GreenTech Industries builds value back into batteries the market once wrote off at the first sign of trouble. It turns out the market is coming round to the same view.
Source: CarGurus used vehicle price analysis, H1 2026 (reported July 2026).
