Used-car values across seven major European markets continued their decline in May, with Italy seeing the steepest drop and Austria the smallest, according to data from Autovista24’s latest Monthly Market Update. The report tracks residual values as a percentage of retained list price after three years and 60,000 kilometers.
New-car list prices rose year-on-year across all seven markets surveyed: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Italy leads the decline, Austria holds steady
Italy recorded the biggest drop in percentage residual values, falling by 3.7 percentage points to 44.4% compared with May 2025. Austria saw the smallest decline, down just 0.7 points to 46.6%. Regional experts forecast that it will also see one of the smallest year-on-year drops by the end of 2026.
The outlook for Italy is more complicated. The report projects the steepest %RV descent of any of the seven markets in the near term. Italy is the only country where values are expected to rise again by 2028. Most other markets are likely to see only marginal declines by that point, according to the analysis.
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Public EV charging infrastructure slows but still grows
Public electric-vehicle charging infrastructure continued to expand in May, though the growth rate has cooled considerably. EV Volumes data shows the number of plug-in points rose 25.2% year-on-year — a notable deceleration from 81.8% in May 2023.
China dominates the global picture, representing 83.1% of all charging locations tracked by the firm. The country’s year-on-year expansion rate fell from 110% in May 2023 to 28% in May 2026. The next biggest market was the Netherlands with just 2.7% of the total.
Europe tallied 524,923 charging stations, up 15.7% year-on-year. Leading European markets included Germany, the UK and France. The US accounted for 1.8% of recorded plug-in points, with 88,050 locations, representing growth of 7.7% compared with the previous May.
The data measures the number of locations where a specific connector type is available, which EV Volumes says gives a more accurate picture of the variety of chargers actually accessible to the public.