The average price of used electric vehicles surged 17% to £24,820 in the year to November as demand outstripped supply.

That’s the key finding of the Auto Trader Retail Price Index for November, which found that the average price of used EVs continue to grow at a higher rate than their petrol or diesel counterparts.

For AFVs more broadly, including EVs, prices averaged at £22,115 in November, a 4.9% like-for-like increase on the same period last year.

The data reveals AFVs were the fastest selling fuel type for retailers last month, taking an average of just 52 days to leave UK forecourts, versus 55 for petrol and 56 for diesel.

The number of searches for pure electric vehicles (EVs) on Auto Trader increased 73% since November 2018 and the Renault ZOE was identified as 2019’s fastest selling used car, the first EV to top the list.

However, despite their popularity, pure electric currently represent just 0.5% of all vehicles advertised, compared to 52% petrol and 45% diesel.

Ian Plummer, Auto Trader commercial director, said: “Whether new car registrations, used car sales, search or speed of sale, every metric indicates a growing appetite for electric.

However, with EVs representing such a small share of the current market and a question mark hanging over the impact Brexit will have on the supply of second generation EVs into the UK, it’s highly unlikely average prices will be dropping any time soon.”

Overall the average price of a used car in the UK was £13,322 in November, up from £12,567 during the same period in 2018.

However, removing the impact of stock mix (changes in the types of vehicle entering or leaving the market), on a like-for-like basis prices are contracting at a rate of -3.5%.

Revealingly, at 6.9%, the level of stock mix impacting last month’s average prices was at its highest since April 2018 (7.4%). It reflects a wave of more expensive vehicles entering the market, such as SUVS and alternatively fuelled vehicles (AFVs), which are in turn pushing average prices up.

The Index shows that average used petrol prices are contracting at the highest rate annually: -4.7% (£11,967) like-for-like.