Educating used vehicle buyers on electric vans and their benefits will be crucial to their success in the used market, the Vehicle Remarketing Association (VRA) told a meeting of members.

It will be important to build a narrative around used eLCVs that promotes their advantages

Held at G3 Vehicle Auctions, Glasshoughton, the event featured a range of experts speaking on how the remarketing sector needs to prepare for the arrival of used electric vans in large numbers from around 2025.

Paul Kirby, director at EV Essentials, said it will be important to build a narrative around eLCVs that promotes their advantages and creates understanding around any perceived limitations.

He elaborated: “That means emphasising potential total cost of ownership benefits, underlining accessibility to Clean Air Zones and recognising that their priorities for electric vans will be different from the original buyers. They will be much less concern around environmental advantages and more interest in payload and speed of charging.”

He added that anyone remarketing eLCVs will need to be able to explain subjects such as the impact of payload on range and different charging ratings throughout the selling process.

“These will be new issues for almost all buyers, and they will need to be steered through the available choices.”

Steve Botfield, senior editor for commercial vehicles at Cap HPI, added: “These are people that have been buying diesel vans probably their entire working lives but know little or nothing about the new technology.”

And while Botfield said franchise dealers have a big part to play here, he noted that the light commercial vehicle market also has a very strong independent dealer presence, and they are just as important.

“They need to make sure that their people in the showroom understand what they are selling and can communicate the benefits ready for when these vehicles start arriving in the used sector in sizeable numbers, which will start to happen around 2025/26.”

Finally, Roger Knight, head of van sales at eStar Truck and Van, said everyone needs to be brought onside for remarketing electric vehicles – not just the person buying the electric vans but the driver and even the sales team.

“A dissatisfied driver who doesn’t recognise the advantage of their EV can mean that electrification on any fleet can slow down or stop, even if there is massive corporate will. They need to be won over. Similarly, all our sales staff now drive EVs or hybrids so that they know about the technology and can enthusiastically promote it.”