Car auctions move billions of dollars a year and are essential to the US automobile industry, yet operate out of the public eye. Every week, tens of thousands of used cars get redistributed from dealers and leasing companies to wholesalers and other dealers. The auctions are not open to the public, so very few people know about them, but they provide a means of turning cars in inventory into cash for sellers, and they provide a steady supply of fresh inventory for used car dealers. Until now, Tesla has been managing its own used car inventory, but as sales of new cars ramp up, there are more Teslas being traded in. As much as Tesla likes to be a vertically integrated company that controls every aspect of its business, established auction houses like Adessa and Manheim are very good at what they do, and so Tesla has contracted with them to help manage its burgeoning supply of used cars, according to CNBC . The majority of cars that go through the auction process are off-lease vehicles — something that Tesla is starting to have a lot of as leases from 2016 and earlier are just starting to mature. To […]
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