10:29 am, April 26, 2025
Used car advertising platform Heycar will close after majority shareholders Volkswagen Financial Services pulled the plug.
The used car site launched in the UK in the summer of 2019 aiming to compete with Auto Trader and Motors, but has made heavy losses since.
Its most recent accounts show it made a £22.4m loss in 2023 following a £30m loss in 2022. Revenue for the firm decreased to just £7.4m, its latest annual report revealed.
Following reports on a German website that said Heycar will be closing as soon as next month – leading to potential job losses in Germany, France and the UK – a spokesperson has confirmed the closure to Car Dealer.
Heycar has also been approached for comment, but has so far not responded.
A spokesperson for VWFS told Car Dealer: ‘Heycar has been a pioneer in the online used car marketplace and, despite the decision to wind down their operations, the valuable insights and digital solutions developed so far will play a crucial role in the future of VWFS UK, as we continue to explore new ways to drive growth and innovation in the automotive e-commerce space.’
The firm said it planned to launch a ‘new subsidiary’ that will ‘integrate the technology developed by Heycar’ into its wider business.
A spokesperson for VWFS had earlier told the German website: ‘The shareholders have decided not to provide Heycar with any further funding.
‘We expect that we will have to let go of a large portion of Heycar’s employees. However, we are considering whether some of the UK employees could be taken on by VWFS UK to further expand the used car business in the B2B sector.’
Heycar is said to currently employ 126 people with a large proportion of them based in the UK.
It is expected to close in Germany in mid-May with the UK to follow a few weeks later. A closure in France may be a little slower due to employee laws in the country.
The spokesperson told the German website that it had ‘underestimated’ the marketing costs required to launch the rival used car advertising site and ‘misjudged the development’ needed.
As of today, Heycar has 91,000 cars for sale on its website. For comparison, market leader Auto Trader has 459,000, Motors/Cazoo has 234,000 and Cargurus has 79,000.
Heycar was launched with a multi-million pound advertising campaign in 2019 backed by Volkswagen Financial Services and Daimler Mobility, which had started Heycar in Germany in 2017.
VWFS was the largest shareholder at 78%, followed by Volkswagen at 13% and Renault at 9%. Early investors Mercedes and insurance company Allianz sold their shares.
Heycar went on a buying spree in the years that followed its launch and snapped up the Honest John website out of administration in February 2020 as well as several lead generation sites. Some of these deals were for seven figure sums.
Last year, it also signed a five-year deal with RAC Cars to take over the running of that used car advertising platform and relaunch it.
Heycar aimed to shake-up the used car advertising marketplace industry by offering customers a different experience. It focussed on younger used cars with more backing for buyers.
After a year of trading, the CEO at the time Matt Moakes said: ‘Other online listings businesses are just digital versions of newspaper ads. That’s not Heycar.
‘We have features and products that improve the experience whether you’re a dealer or a consumer, the latest of which includes our worry-free money back guarantee, and our new Concierge service which helps car buyers take the stress and inconvenience out of car ownership.’
According to reports, VWFS is believed to have invested more than £250m in Heycar since its launch.
First published April 26, 10:29; Updated with VWFS ULK statement at 15:25
