Why a used electric car is the smartest buy in Denmark right now

If you’re shopping the used car market in Denmark right now, there’s a strong case that a nearly new electric car is the smartest place to look. A new depreciation analysis from AutoUncle shows that 2022 model year electric cars have lost value far faster than their petrol equivalents, and while that’s painful reading for the people who bought them new, it has quietly turned into very good news for anyone buying used today.

EV depreciation Denmark: what actually happened to prices

Across the electric cars AutoUncle tracked, the average price fell from 460,700 DKK in 2022 to 224,500 DKK in 2026, a 51 percent drop, or roughly 4,900 DKK a month over four years. Petrol cars in the same study fell from 278,600 to 187,800 DKK, a 33 percent drop worth around 1,900 DKK a month. Looking at the median model instead of the average, the typical electric car lost 52 percent of its value, against 32 percent for petrol.

The study covers 22 electric models and 16 petrol models from the 2022 model year, tracked individually through to 2026. Every single one of the 22 electric models lost at least 46 percent of its value, with a surprisingly narrow spread between them. The Mini Cooper SE held up best at a 46 percent drop, while the Hyundai Kona Electric sat at the bottom with a 56 percent fall. The VW ID.4 lost 54 percent, the Tesla Model Y 53 percent, and the Skoda Enyaq iV 52 percent. Petrol models varied far more widely, ranging from 18 to 44 percent, with the VW Polo down just 18 percent and the Renault Captur, at 44 percent, sitting closer to EV territory than most of its petrol peers.

2022 model depreciation by car

Used EV price gap with petrol has nearly closed

Here’s where the story flips in the buyer’s favour. Back in 2022, the electric cars in AutoUncle’s study cost on average 182,100 DKK more than equivalent petrol cars when new, a 65 percent premium. Four years later, that gap has shrunk to just 36,700 DKK, or 20 percent. Most of the original price premium for going electric has effectively been absorbed by depreciation, and it’s the first owners who footed that bill. For anyone shopping the used market today, though, that exact same price collapse is precisely what makes a used EV such a compelling buy right now, a car that once carried a hefty premium can now be had for very close to petrol money.

It’s worth noting the gap can’t simply be explained away by EVs being pricier cars to begin with, or by extra mileage. Looking specifically at models that cost between 260,000 and 400,000 DKK when new, electric cars still lost 53 percent of their value against 33 percent for petrol. Electric cars in the study had covered somewhat more distance, averaging around 66,000 km by 2026 against 57,500 km for petrol cars, but AutoUncle’s own data suggests that extra mileage accounts for less than two percentage points of the 19 point gap between the two groups.

The same Hyundai, two very different outcomes

One of the clearest examples in the data is the Hyundai Kona, sold from new with both a petrol engine and a fully electric powertrain. The Kona Electric has lost 56 percent of its value since 2022, while the petrol version has dropped by roughly 25 percent over the same stretch, according to AutoUncle’s figures. That gap captures the core challenge electric cars from this era have faced: since 2022, newer EVs have arrived with longer range, faster charging and more equipment, all while list prices have fallen sharply. Tesla’s steep price cuts from early 2023 in particular triggered a price war that rippled quickly through the rest of the market, and through used EV values along with it.

Why now looks like a genuinely good moment to buy used

Mads Nørgaard, market analyst at AutoUncle, still expects electric cars to keep depreciating somewhat faster than petrol ones going forward, partly because the underlying technology keeps moving quickly. At the same time, he believes the sharpest period of value loss is probably now behind the market, which is worth bearing in mind, since this analysis captures what happened to an unusual 2022 model year through four years of rapid technological change and steep price cuts. It doesn’t necessarily mean a car bought electric in 2026 will lose half its value by 2030.

What it does show clearly is just how expensive the early part of the EV transition turned out to be for the people who bought in first. For everyone else, that steep early depreciation has already happened, and it shows up today as used electric cars priced closer to petrol equivalents than at almost any point since EVs went mainstream, arguably making right now one of the better moments in years to pick up a nearly new EV for the price of a used petrol car.