AUTO1 Group (LON:0A9L) used its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call to highlight record volumes, profitability, and market share gains, alongside a 2026 outlook that targets up to one million vehicles sold. CEO and co-founder Christian Bertermann and newly appointed CFO Christian Wallentin said the company is now “leveraging” more than a decade of investment in pricing technology, logistics, inspection capabilities, and financing infrastructure to drive operating leverage across both its Merchant and Retail (Autohero) segments.
Record 2025 results and expanding operating leverage
Management said 2025 delivered the highest adjusted EBITDA margin in the company’s 14-year history, with record unit sales and profitability achieved simultaneously. Group unit sales rose 22% year-over-year to 842,000 vehicles, while total gross profit increased 37% to EUR 991 million. Gross profit per unit (GPU) rose 12% to EUR 1,172, up from EUR 1,049 in 2024.
In Q4—described as typically the softest quarter—group units grew 20% year-over-year despite slower December trading over the holidays. The company reported Q4 adjusted EBITDA of roughly EUR 45 million, which Wallentin said was achieved even as AUTO1 continued investing in the Autohero brand, inventory selection, and purchasing capabilities.
Merchant segment: volume growth, dealer expansion, and financing momentum
The Merchant segment remained AUTO1’s largest business and delivered what management called record results across key metrics. Full-year Merchant unit sales increased 20% to 741,000 vehicles, with Q4 volumes of 190,000 units, up 17% year-over-year. Merchant gross profit rose 28% to EUR 723 million for the year, with Q4 gross profit of EUR 188 million, up 23% from the prior-year quarter.
Merchant GPU increased 7% to EUR 976 for 2025, supported by pricing algorithms, trading systems, higher average selling prices, and what management described as strong merchant finance execution. Q4 Merchant GPU was EUR 986, up EUR 44 year-over-year.
AUTO1 also emphasized expansion of its dealer network and physical infrastructure. Active merchant partners reached 33,700 in Q4, up 23% year-over-year, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of growth. For the full year, 54,400 partners purchased from AUTO1, up 22% year-over-year, while the “average basket” was described as roughly flat due to strong growth from new dealers.
On sourcing capacity, the company added 178 branches in 2025, a 32.5% increase year-over-year, bringing total branches to 725. AUTO1 purchased 809,000 cars from consumers, with around 16% bought for retail. The company said quarterly capacity rose 38% year-over-year to around 300,000 units by year-end.
Logistics scale was also a focal point. AUTO1 processed 29% more transports to dealers at improved speed and said it handled more than 1.5 million transports in 2025 with over 170 logistics compounds across Europe. Transport share in Merchant increased 7% year-over-year to 48%, while the transport share of cross-border cars sold increased 11% to 60%.
Merchant financing expanded geographically and in usage. AUTO1 extended merchant financing to Poland and Sweden, bringing availability to eight markets. More than 4,400 dealers used the product in 2025, up 47% year-over-year. Management reported merchant sales financed increased by EUR 580 million, up 74%, and the financing attach rate rose 41% to 17%. Bertermann said the company believes merchant finance attach rate can reach 50% over the long term.
Retail (Autohero): surpassing 100,000 units, higher GPU, and faster delivery
In Retail, AUTO1 reported what it described as the fastest growth among public auto retailers in the EU, while noting that the business remains at an early stage in terms of market penetration. Retail unit sales climbed 36% to 101,500 vehicles in 2025, surpassing 100,000 for the first time. Q4 Retail units rose 40% to 28,700.
Retail gross profit increased 65% year-over-year to EUR 268 million, while Retail GPU grew 20% to EUR 2,605 for the year and reached a quarterly record of EUR 2,632 in Q4. Management said these results strengthen confidence in reaching the long-term Retail GPU target of EUR 3,000.
Bertermann discussed brand investment and customer experience improvements. The company increased marketing from the second to the fourth quarter, and aided brand awareness reached 33% across markets at year-end, up seven percentage points compared to the beginning of 2024. Management also cited an NPS of around 70.
Operationally, AUTO1 highlighted the scaling of its proprietary AI-powered damage detection and inspection system, AUTO1 Car Audit Technology, to five major production centers across Germany, Spain, France, and Italy in Q4. The company also reported a Q4 delivery time of 10 days, 13% faster than the prior year, supported by an expanded fulfillment network. AUTO1 ended 2025 with 153 pickup locations across Europe, including express hubs designed to have cars ready within 72 hours.
In Q&A, management said Retail unit economics for full-year 2025 were positive before marketing costs, describing marketing largely as a brand investment. The company also discussed growth-related cost drag, noting roughly a EUR 400 “basket of cost items” to be carried by current deliveries given the exit growth rate in Q4, and said it expects continued quarter-on-quarter improvement in unit economics, with some volatility depending on growth rates.
Balance sheet, cash, and 2026 outlook
Wallentin said AUTO1 maintained stable cash levels of around EUR 600 million and had no corporate debt. Inventory was roughly EUR 1 billion at the end of Q4, funded through inventory ABS and positive trading cash flow. Inventory ABS loan-to-value was 83% at year-end.
The company also discussed scaling of captive financing products. Wallentin said captive finance volumes grew almost 50% year-over-year and are increasingly contributing to profitability. He added that consumer finance contributes about EUR 500 of GPU in Germany and Austria, while merchant finance has a “less pronounced” GPU contribution but is viewed as a demand driver with attractive risk-adjusted returns and improved customer stickiness.
For 2026, AUTO1 guided to:
- Group units: 940,000 to 1,000,000 (Merchant: 815,000–865,000; Autohero: 125,000–135,000)
- Gross profit: EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.2 billion
- Adjusted EBITDA: EUR 250 million to EUR 275 million
At the top end of the unit range, management noted the milestone of one million units traded. Wallentin said the EUR 50 million to EUR 75 million year-over-year EBITDA improvement is expected to be fueled by unit growth and gross profit expansion, with Merchant and Retail GPUs “broadly flat” versus 2025 as the company prioritizes growth pace. He also said adjusted EBITDA distribution in 2026 is expected to resemble 2024, with the second half significantly higher than the first half.
On early 2026 trading, management said the year began well overall but cited headwinds from winter conditions, describing roughly 10 days of impact in early January. Bertermann characterized the broader market assumption embedded in guidance as stable volumes or slight growth, adding that January market volumes were down before catching up in February.
Asked about competitive dynamics tied to AI, Bertermann said the company had not seen new entrants that would change the competitive landscape in its core dealer and logistics-heavy model. He suggested AI-driven search tools could shift some consumer traffic patterns but framed them primarily as emerging advertising channels rather than a direct threat to AUTO1’s integrated buying and selling capabilities.
About AUTO1 Group (LON:0A9L)
AUTO1 Group SE operates a digital automotive platform for buying and selling used cars online in Europe. It operates AUTO1.com for the sale of used cars to professional car dealers; Autohero.com for sale of used cars to private customers; and wirkaufendeinauto.de, an online platform to sell their used cars to consumers. AUTO1 Group SE was founded in 2012 and is based in Berlin, Germany.
