Renault Group and its subsidiary RCI Bank and Services, specialising in automotive financing and services, have acquired an equity stake in Mobility Trader Holding GmbH 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 AG and by Daimler that was launched in Germany (2017) in cooperation with VAPS (Volkswagen and Audi), the German dealer association. The platform is already operational in the United Kingdom (2019) and Spain (2020). Representing a large number of dealer groups of different brands at 5,000 locations with more than 380,000 vehicles, it markets quality used vehicles online, sold by professionals to retail customers.
Renault Group will contribute to the development of the heycar platform in France by bringing Carizy to the project, the French leading 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.
The completion of this 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.
