The Autorola Group expects its volumes to more than double over the next five years to 500,000 vehicles.
This growth reflects the transition from offline to online, which could account for as much as 30% of used vehicle sales in some countries at the expense of physical auction.

Autorola, which has subsidiaries in 17 European countries and buyers in 32 countries sees online remarketing finally coming of age with both vendors and buyers across Europe both in mature and maturing used markets.

Group chief executive Peter Grøftehauge is experiencing levels of interest from dealers, leasing and rental companies, manufacturers and fleet operators not previously seen since setting up Autorola in Denmark in 1996.

“We no longer have to spend time educating the sceptics about online remarketing,” said Groftehauge.

“Instead vendors accept that online has become an integral part of their remarketing strategy, offering them speed, access to new buyers and more often better prices, while buyers understand the convenience and transparency offered by online transactions,” he said

Countries like the UK are estimating that 30% of all used vehicles will be sold online by 2018, while the eastern bloc countries, where demand for used vehicles is growing are buying online from western European markets whose economies are struggling. This cross border activity is helping fuel the massive growth in online remarketing.

“We would go as far to say that cross border online remarketing activity helped countries like Portugal save its used vehicle industry from going under after demand for used vehicles fell like a stone overnight,” explained Grøftehauge.

“Rather than asset owners having vehicles sitting in fields for months, these were uploaded onto online platforms and were purchased by buyers across Europe. Within just a couple of months the backlog of vehicles was cleared and the used market starting functioning again at its new level.”

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