Never before have so many used passenger cars been sold in a single calendar year as in 2020. Remarkably, the pandemic, which also caused the lowest number of new passenger cars sold in half a century, is behind the huge sales of used passenger cars.
In 2020, 2,025,309 used passenger cars were traded, according to figures released today by BOVAG and RDC. A record number. Never before have Dutch consumers purchased more than 2 million second-hand cars in a calendar year. Last year the sales level of used cars was 2.8 percent, about 55,000 units, lower. According to Bovag, the need for individual transport among Dutch consumers as a result of the corona measures was higher than ever.
1.3 million of the more than 2 million used passenger cars traded were sold by car companies. No less than 1.05 million of them, just under 82 percent, had a petrol engine under the hood. Diesels were sold less often by car companies than last year. The share of cars with a diesel engine sold by car companies fell from 14 percent to 12 percent. The increasing supply of and demand for used electric cars doubled the market share of the total number of EVs sold compared to 2019, although the absolute figures are not yet alarmingly high. Of the used passenger cars sold by car companies last year, more than 14,000 units, about 1.1 percent of the total, had an electric powertrain.
The months of March, April and May were quite a blow last year. Bovag and RDC observed sales declines of more than 25 percent. Used passenger car sales fell during the second corona wave in November and December for much smaller declines. Utrecht is the only province where fewer (-0.8 percent) used cars were sold, while Overijssel is in the lead with a sales increase of 6 percent compared to 2019.