Carvana has pioneered more than just online car buying. We’re also giving people a newer, safer, more reliable means of selling their vehicles while powering the emerging trend of upcycling cars. While 2020 was a year none of us expected, it was one that saw online car buying (and selling) go from niche to an emerging trend to the new norm.
In fact, approximately 97 percent of all vehicle transactions now begin online, and approximately 75 percent of consumers are already considering buying a car online. Over that same span, Carvana demonstrated to hundreds of thousands of customers that selling vehicles online can be the new standard too, as both the desires for safe shopping experiences and effective recycling and upcycling trends continue to increase.
For individuals looking to sell their vehicle, Carvana can provide a real offer on that vehicle in just two minutes; an attractive option if you’re like the average consumer and found that listing a vehicle on a marketplace site, getting non-serious offers from too many people, and meeting up with a stranger to conduct the sale and paperwork was unattractive before the pandemic and borderline untenable in the present day. With the ability to sell your vehicle to Carvana, you can accept a real-time, no-haggle offer on the vehicle you’re selling, schedule a time and day for Carvana to come pick up the vehicle, and receive a check on the day we take your car away. It’s that simple.
It is so easy, in fact, that in 2020, more than 204,000 customers took Carvana up on their offers to purchase their vehicles, an increase of 95% from the year prior. In 2021, the upward trajectory of drivers looking to swap their vehicles and either get into something more suitable, more sustainable, or more affordable continues to trend in a positive direction.
That’s because with the considerable mainstream interest in thrifting these days, not to mention the socially and environmentally conscious benefits of these practices, fashion sensibilities and cost-saving techniques don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The same way people search for previously owned clothing, antiques, art, housewares, seasonal items, and furniture, applies to the world of automotive retail now. And with a better infrastructure for selling one’s car and avoiding the hassle of the current peer-to-peer marketplace, it is easier to turn one’s previously owned vehicle into another’s future dream ride. Furthermore, as more consumers embrace used vehicle ownership as one way to minimize their reliance on new manufacturing and the environmental impact that goes with it, upcycling and keeping vehicles in circulation effectively lengthens their lifespans and decreases dependence on strapped supply chains.
Carvana is also making electric vehicles (EVs) more accessible and doing its part to help educate average Americans on more emissions conscious choices. In fact, Carvana saw a 24% increase in purchases of EVs year-over-year as shown in our second annual (2020) Online Car Buyer Report. Overall, EVs sold quicker—37 days compared to the average 70 days for other vehicles on the Carvana site—indicating the growing demand and appetite for more used EV solutions. And as our rapidly growing program of buying vehicles from customers continues to become more popular, Carvana is well poised to help maintain a steady pipeline of EV inventory moving forward.
In the same spirit as companies designing products more consciously to be reusable, Carvana improves all the vehicles we recondition with an average of $1,000 of parts and labor. Meaning in 2020 alone, we invested more than $240 million to ensure customers could “go green” and buy used instead of relying on new, doing what we can to keep environmental impacts down. In 2021, that figure is only primed to continue to rise as we continue to feed the cycle with an increasing volume of used cars we’ve sourced from our customers. In fact, at times, the amount of vehicles Carvana acquires from our customers even outpaces the amount of cars we sell.
This is more than a trend, it is steadily becoming a new standard.
