Used diesel car has never been so unpopular

Of the 1,232,335 used passenger cars that car companies sold in the first 11 baskets of this year, only 121,712 units had diesel engines under the hood. That is 9.9 percent of the total. Never before has the share of cars with a diesel engine in total used car sales dropped below 10 percent. By way of comparison: in 2016 this share was about 16.5 percent and in 2009 it was still over 20 percent. In the first 11 months of 2020, 12 percent of used cars sold by car companies still had a diesel engine under the hood. No less than 80.2 percent of the used passenger cars sold in the first 11 months of 2021 had a petrol engine. It concerns 988,432 copies. In the same period last year, there were 21,000 more, although the gasoline share was 81.7 percent.

Used electric car

Electric cars are now becoming increasingly available on the second-hand market, as the figures also show. Through November, car companies sold 29,452 used electric cars. That’s more than twice as many as the 12,281 used EVs sold in the first 11 months of 2020. Used EVs already account for a 2.4 percent share of used car sales this year. Last year, that share was only 1 percent. In addition, hybrid cars are also popular on the used market. This year, car companies have already sold 82,659 used cars with a hybrid powertrain, more than 30,000 more than in the same period last year.

Automatic and convertible gain ground

More interesting figures: the automatic transmission is also gaining ground on the second-hand market at the expense of the manual gearbox. To date, 64.5 percent of all used cars sold by car companies had a manual transmission. In 2016, the share of cars with a manual transmission on the second-hand market was 79 percent and in 2011 it was 83 percent. The figures from Bovag and RDC also show that the share of convertibles in second-hand sales has never been higher than in the first 11 months of this year. No less than 2.6 percent of all used cars sold by car companies were convertibles. It concerned 32,168 copies. The share of sedans in used car sales continues to fall, until November this year only 5 percent of used cars sold were sedans. Ten years ago, that share was still more than 10 percent. Up to and including November, about 17 percent of all used cars sold were SUVs. The hatchback remains the king of body styles with a 53 percent share of the second-hand market. With a stable share of 13 percent, the station wagon has little to suffer from this.