Renault and subsidiary, RCI Bank and Services, have acquired an equity stake in Mobility Trader to contribute to the development of the heycar platform in Europe and its launch in France.
Heycar is an online used car sales platform originally owned by Volkswagen and Daimler, launched in Germany (2017) in cooperation with VAPS (Volkswagen and Audi), the German dealer association.
The platform is already operational in the UK and Spain. Representing a large number of dealer groups of different brands at 5,000 locations with more than 380,000 vehicles, it markets used vehicles online, sold by professionals to retail customers.
RCI Bank and Services will offer financing and services adapted to the specificities of used vehicles and to customers’ needs, for each vehicle put online by Renault Group dealers.
Renault will contribute to the development of the heycar platform in France by bringing Carizy to the project, the French start-up in C2C intermediation. Carizy, acquired in 2018 by the Renault Group, has experienced strong growth in sales volumes in France and will complement the B2C offering of heycar to develop its C2C business starting in France.
“We are very pleased with this project with heycar, which in just a few years has become a key player in the online distribution of used vehicles,” said Renault CEO, Luca de Meo.
“This agreement is in line with Renault Group’s strategy to increase value creation at each stage of the vehicle life cycle. In line with the Re-Factory – the project to convert the Flins plant into a dedicated site for circular economy of mobility – through this partnership we intend to strengthen the competitiveness of our sales network across the entire used vehicle value chain: from procurement to after-sales, including reconditioning, marketing and sales of financing and services.”
The completion of the acquisition is subject to the conditions normally applicable to this type of transaction, including the presentation to the respective boards of the involved parties, the employee representative bodies in France in accordance with the applicable French regulations and the possible approval of the relevant competition authorities.
It is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021.