Thinking of buying a hybrid car? Your best bet is the £80,000 Porsche Panamera – at least when you come to sell it again.
In a very bad month for new car registrations in September, the only bright spot was the alternatively-fuelled market, which includes hybrids and full electric cars. As sales of petrol cars slipped back just over 1% and diesels plummeted more than 22%, the alternative fuelled sector jumped 41%. At 94,125 cars year-to-date, it still represents just 4.6% of the overall market, but that is up from 3.3% a year ago.
Premium hybrids retain value
According to data specialists hpi, the Porsche Panamera tops the hybrid table in terms of Residual Value (RV) – how much of the original buying price an owner will get back when they sell the car after three years or 30,000 miles.
The four-seater Porsche will lose on average just £14,515 from its £79,715 average new price, giving it an impressive RV of 81.8%.
In second place comes the BMW 7 Series hybrid at 75.7%, losing £17,983 from its average £73,717 price, and then the much sought-after Volvo XC90 SUV, with a 70.6% RV cutting £18,489 from its average £62,817 new price.
In fact, the top of the hybrid RV table is dominated by the premium makes, and it’s only when one looks down in seventh that more mainstream models start to appear. The Volkswagen Passat petrol hybrid, selling for an average of £39,073, will return 64.5% of that price after three years, losing £13,891.
The only other non-premium brand to make it into the hybrid RV top 15 is Kia, with its Optima. This retains 56.1% of its value, losing £14,890 from its £33,940 average selling price.
According to hpi senior editor James Dower, the expanding choice of hybrid models is now providing credible options for buyers after all types of car, from small superminis to large SUVs”
“Petrol hybrid values increased for the fourth month in a row with average values rising by 1.1%,” Dower says. “It’s a growing market as we see more manufacturers releasing new models with hybrid powertrains and it appears that consumers have embraced the technology with few concerns over the life of a battery.”
