After nearly two decades in the French market, the business has reached a defining milestone: scale. Despite growth slowing margins from two record years in 2023 and 2024 from the exceptional highs of recent years, 2025 marked another step change in both maturity and market impact.

After major expansion in 2023 and 2024, growth in 2025 moderated to a still-impressive 35% and reflects a business that has moved from acceleration to consolidation – growing from strength rather than chasing volume.

Record hammer values

It continues to cement its position as one of the country’s leading online auction providers. In 2025 the total value of vehicles that went under its online hammer exceeded €230 million, but it’s not just the value of sales but the profile of car that is being sold that sets Autorola apart from its competitors.

“Our average hammer value is over €20,000 per car which reflects the profile of vendor that we work with. We mainly sell, ex-fleet, rental and major dealer group direct stock. The physical auctions in France tend to sell the low-value, trade-ins while we focus on the higher-value stock,” explained Pierre.

Indicata platform continues to grow

One of the most important strategic shifts in 2025 has been diversification. The business has a wide variety of seller partners for its MarketPlace online wholesale platform but it’s the Indicata used car pricing platform which has accounted for healthy growth.

“Indicata now represents close to 20% of total revenues in France and continuing to outpace the wider business. It has shifted away from a licence selling formula to providing a full customer partnership model for large fleets, OEMs and dealers groups.

“For so long it was the young pretender of the big data providers but its quality of real time data and a strong customer support team that provides hands-on support has won many friends in the form of more large customers. It delivers measurable results and its technology and data band width means it is now the market leader.

Going from strength to strength

“A number of paid Indicata pilots have been set up and once training has been rolled out and the dealer group’s remarketing team uses the system it generally ends up with them onboarding the Indicata platform,” said Pierre.

Large dealer groups like the fact that Indicata helps them become more competitive in their local area as well as having a handle on capturing and analysing used EV prices, sales and stock levels, Dealers that sell used cars online and who trade in the national market can also use Indicata data to price their cars to compete with other online sellers.

Customer testimonials

As in many European countries dealers are very cautious about new products and services, but dealer group principals have delivered customer testimonials live on stage at several French automotive trade shows and have generated new interest and respect for our data in the market.

Autorola’s online wholesale Marketplace platform remains the largest business unit in France and one of the group’s strongest export engines. In 2025 over 80% of vehicles sold were exported – 25% of which were BEVs – which made France became the highest export-ratio country in the group.

Denmark alone accounted for 25% of total sales, with The Netherlands and Portugal also key destinations. This export strength consistently delivers strong returns per vehicle and has become a structural advantage for Autorola and its vendors.

Cross border sales run smoothly

Close cooperation with colleagues in Denmark and other countries has been critical — aligning buyer expectations, logistics, documentation and timelines to ensure cross-border transactions run smoothly. Autorola France now employs nine people in its export/cross border team with multiple languages spoken to ease communication between buyers.

“France is at the heart of Europe and from a cross-border perspective we trade with many other countries that are our neighbours. Getting a car delivered from France to its new owner can take only a few days because of our geography,” said Pierre.

EV Expertise as a Differentiator

Electric vehicles have emerged as a clear differentiator for Autorola. While many vendors struggle with BEV stock, Autorola’s cross border proposition is selling stock quickly and for a good price. This capability has delivered tangible value for larger vendors and in turn hundreds of euros more per vehicle than alternative domestic channels and reinforcing long-term partnerships.

After a slow start embracing EVs, one in five new car sales in France during 2025 were EVs which were incentivised by generous government incentives (up to €5,200+ bonuses), low running costs including zero annual vehicle tax and exemptions from strict Crit’Air urban emission zone restrictions.

The 2025 ‘social leasing’ program also offered EVs for around €140–€200 per month, which further boosted accessibility for households. This growth in new EV sales has resulted in French vendors  also turning their attention to their used EV remarketing strategies which is also where Indicata’s used car pricing insights have become highly valued.

Investing in People and Structure

Autorola France has grown its team to 60 people in just four years to cope with business growth and puts it in a good position to continue to grow.

“We have a strong team in place, and we are now talking to several larger companies regarding our Fleet Monitor asset and workflow management platform which could provide a return on our investment in this area. Fleet Monitor is a very smart system and can manage an asset from the time it is ordered to the time is sent to auction. Many OEMs and leasing companies like the level of transparency it gives to vehicles across their life cycle,” said Pierre.