Electric cars: could leasing a used EV help you afford one?

When Anthony Santos was looking for a car to replace his Audi Q3, a diesel SUV, he felt reluctant about making the switch to an electric car.

“I was considering it, but I probably wouldn’t have,” says Santos, a sales manager at RWinvest, a property investment company in Liverpool. But when he started looking at his options the ability to lease a used electric vehicle (EV) caught his eye.

A couple of years ago someone looking for their next car would have been hard pushed to find a used EV – let alone lease one – but that is changing fast.

View image in fullscreen Anthony Santos with his Mercedes EQA, which he leases for £360 a month instead of the usual £570 via a salary sacrifice scheme.

There are now 1m EVs on British roads, and the cars bought by early adopters are hitting the secondhand market.

Generally speaking EVs have lost value more quickly than petrol or diesel cars, which is a big problem for the owners of leasing companies, rental businesses or corporate fleets. But the flipside for consumers is that it is possible to find a cheap leasing deal.

In the second quarter of 2025, the number of used car leases in the UK rose by 166%, compared with the same period a year ago, with electric cars driving the growth, according to the latest data available from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), a lobby group.

“Three years