ViHUB can help dealers succeed with used EVs

As new all-electric vehicles (EVs) increase market share, so the used EV market expands providing an increasingly important revenue stream for dealers.

All-electric registrations hit a record in March - up 24.2% (source: SMMT), but with market share at 22.6%, it remains short of this year’s mandated target of 33%. Whilst momentum gathers, the pace suggests hesitancy on the part of consumers likely reflected in used EV take-up despite recent fuel hikes following America’s bombing of Iran.

EVs can carry unique pricing pressures due to rapid model updates and incentive changes and that requires real-time understanding of market shifts for repricing to avoid rapid depreciation and automated updates to online marketing channels.

A combination of market oversight including at a local and brand level, a grasp of a group’s stock portfolio in real-time, pricing and days-in-stock information and the ability to turn industry jargon into compelling descriptions to entice car buyers can help quash any used EV retailing fears.

Autofinity’s ViHUB provides a single portal for dealers to manage stock and retail applications in one place, collating data from multiple sources enabling stock oversight and automated updates to marketing channels.

CEO Andy Whitehair said: “Government policy is certainly dictating OEM EV strategy but that doesn’t mean consumer or even dealer behaviour will follow suit. Many car buyers are still reluctant to embrace electric and in turn, dealers are nervous about diversifying their forecourts in favour of electric too fast. But holding back can mean losing out and there are ways to cleverly manage used EVs to reap the rewards.”

No time, manpower or enough in-house expertise to be across EVs to ensure success?

Understanding the market, reliable vehicle sourcing and accurate pricing (at wholesale and part-exchange as well as on the forecourt) are even more important factors when retailing used EVs but not having the resource and expertise, even if using the array of tools available, can be off-putting.

With traditional dealership information contained in silo format, dealers are unable to access real-time information on their stock essential for successfully operating in a complex and fast-changing market.

Whitehair added: “Those dealers with their fingers on the market’s pulse and the ability to buy and sell accurately at a given moment as well as making continual price adjustments according to market demands will be the winners in the used EV retailing stakes.”

ViHUB’s new Insights dashboard presents data in an easily accessible format where key issues such as a vehicle with no images or an overaged vehicle which requires a price adjustment are flagged. Any changes a staff member makes to a vehicle sees automated updates to all integrated sites including the dealer and OEM websites and online classified marketing channels like Autotrader.

Whitehair said: “It’s everything ViHUB does for ICE vehicles, of course, but the ease and simplicity of updating details in one system and navigation to granular detail in one portal whatever the data source for fast, accurate adjustments can give dealers confidence to expand their used EV portfolio.”

By pooling data from all integrated sources, dealers can also make the most of detail-rich, consumer friendly descriptions and highlight special features to attract the right customer to the right car for faster transactions. Meanwhile, with battery health an essential determining factor of EV resale value, work is underway to ensure additional information vital for selling used EVs such as SoH (state of health) data uploads are incorporated into its data sets.