The Motorway National Car Index

The Motorway takeaway

EVs are taking charge

The top stats from our top story.

• EV sales volume +115%
• average EV price +6%
• Tesla Model 3 tops Motorway Most In-demand list

The Motorway National Car Index

Hello,

This is the Motorway National Car Index.

A new quarterly report showing you the numbers, trends and data driving the UK used car market, built on prices achieved by private UK sellers on Motorway, the UK’s first and biggest car selling platform, over the previous quarter.

At Motorway, we’ve helped over 1 million people sell their cars and the 2 in 3 UK dealers that use our platform are buying a car every 2 minutes.

And this is your regular glimpse into all of that data.

It’s an up to date view of what’s really happening on the driveways and forecourts up and down the country.

If you have any questions, send them to us at:

press@motorway.co.uk

The main story

EVs lead the charge

It only takes one look at our Motorway sales data to see that the UK has fully embraced electric.

The numbers

The number of EVs sold on Motorway has more than doubled, up 115%, compared with the same period last year, with the average price sellers received for an electric vehicle increasing by 6% in that time, too.

It’s a change in behaviour that has pushed the Tesla Model 3 to top of Motorway’s list of Most In-demand cars. 

But this demand isn’t just focused on one car. EVs have created more competition among dealers, attracting 29% more bids than the average car listed on the platform.

The factors

It’s impossible to pin down a single reason for this as there are so many different factors driving it, but together they’ve created a perfect storm for EV owners and dealers alike.

Decreased range anxiety as the real-world average range of an EV steadily increases each year, up to around 300 miles today from 235 miles in 2024 according to the RAC. [link]

Increased charging convenience as the number of public and private charging facilities has exploded over the last 5 years. In 2021 there were an estimated 200,000 charge-at-home wallboxes and today, according to Zapmap there are 1.4m of them on driveways across the UK.

Fuel prices are on the up and up as diesel has rocketed and petrol, according to the ONS, has reached its highest price in nearly four years. And with no sign of them coming down as the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt global oil supplies, the charger is becoming a much more attractive long-term option to the fuel pump. [link]

The used market is always about 4-6 years behind the new (3-4 for financed cars) and this means the EVs bought new in the early adoption wave are now becoming available to drivers with more modest budgets.

Visibility breeds confidence as people see more EVs on the roads and more chargers at the roadsides, they’re more likely to consider going electric.

The expert opinion

All of those factors are working together to create much better value for UK motorists says Rob Nicholls, Principal Data Scientist, Motorway: 

“The gap between how quickly EVs lose value against petrol or diesel has narrowed a lot. This quarter, sellers received 6% more than a year ago for a used EV. A second-hand EV is now very good value, cheap to run, and there are more public chargers than fuel pumps in the UK.”

And James McConville, Director of Solo Cars in Liverpool, doesn’t see the trend reversing any time soon: 

“Demand has proper picked up. Couple of years back an EV was a talking point on the forecourt – now it’s just another car. Prices have come down to where a used Tesla or an ID.4 sits, which is close to a VW Golf on a monthly basis, and the customer doesn’t blink. It’s normal families buying them now, not the early adopters. We put the chargers in when we rebuilt the showroom and they’re getting used.”

More top stories from across the UK

The North-South divide narrows

In Q3 2025, sellers in the North East were getting almost 10% less for their cars than sellers in the South East.

However in Q3 this year, that gap has significantly narrowed to only 1.2%.

The North East was the only mainland region where average car sale prices rose, up 1.1%, with sales volume up 7.2% as it moved from 11th of 12 regions by sale price to seventh. London also recorded significant growth with the number of cars sold up 19%.

Rob Nicholls, Principal Data Scientist at Motorway, explains how these changes are being driven by the more level playing field being built by Motorway,

“We have seen the price gap that used to exist between regions of the UK start to close. This is due to the nation-wide reach of Motorway and our increasingly popular transport service which allows dealers great access to previously more difficult to reach areas of the UK. What this means for sellers outside of major cities is they may get more money now than they used to due to dealers widening their nets.”

Could green be the new grey?

Grey stayed in top spot as the most sold colour with a +15.0% increase in sales volume, but in seventh place, green surged with a +41.3% rise in volume and a +14.7% increase in price.

It wasn’t the only popular colour to see a price increase with orange (+10.1%) and yellow (+3.8%) also rising, but it definitely wasn’t a trend across the whole list with two other UK favourites, red ( -12.1%) and silver (-11.3%), both sharply dropping.

Stories to keep an eye on

China arrives on the used market

This time last year three Chinese brands were included in Motorway resale data for the first time, with BYD, Maxus and Omoda appearing among the more recognisable names in the list.

Fast forward a year, and today that number has doubled as they’ve been joined by Jaecoo, Ora and Leapmotor, taking the total number of brands from three to six, and the number of models from four to 13.

It’s not quite a market takeover but a strong sign that buyers are open to Chinese brands to get more car for their money, even as dealers remain cautious on how the newer names will hold value in the long run.

The market in numbers / The UK used car market in numbers

Methodology

All figures compare 1 July to 8 September 2026 with the equivalent period in 2025, for cars sold through Motorway. Data extracted 8 September 2026.