ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Carvana Co. is a holding company that was formed as a Delaware corporation on November 29, 2016 to complete an initial public offering ("IPO") and related transactions in order to operate the business of Carvana Group, LLC and its subsidiaries (collectively, "Carvana Group"). Carvana Co. Class A common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") under the symbol "CVNA." Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to "Carvana," the "Company," "we," "us," and "our" refer to Carvana Co., Carvana Group, and its consolidated subsidiaries.
Our Company
Carvana is the leading e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars. We are transforming the used car buying and selling experience by giving consumers what they want - a wide selection, great value and quality, transparent pricing, and a simple, no pressure transaction. Each element of our business, from inventory procurement to fulfillment and overall ease of the online transaction, has been built for this singular purpose.
We provide refreshingly different and convenient experiences for used car buying and selling that can save customers time and money. On our platform, consumers can research and identify a vehicle, inspect it using our patented 360-degree vehicle imaging technology, obtain financing and warranty coverage, purchase the vehicle, and schedule delivery or pick-up, all from their desktop or mobile device. Additionally, a customer can obtain a conditional offer online for their vehicle by answering a few questions without needing to provide service records. Our transaction technologies and online platform transform a traditionally time-consuming process by allowing customers to secure financing, complete a purchase or sale, and schedule delivery or pick-up online in as little as 10 minutes.
Our technology and infrastructure allow us to seamlessly and cost-efficiently deliver this experience to our customers. We use proprietary algorithms to optimize our nationally pooled inventory of over 33,000 total website units, inspect and recondition our vehicles based on our inspection process, and operate our own logistics network to deliver cars directly to customers in our markets as soon as the same day in certain markets. Customers in certain markets also have the option to pick up their vehicle at one of our patented vending machines, which provides an exciting pick-up experience for the customer while decreasing our variable costs, increasing scalability and building brand awareness.
In addition, through our acquisition (the "ADESA Acquisition") of ADESA U.S. Auction, LLC ("ADESA"), we also have 56 auction sites throughout the U.S., which enhance our customer offering by facilitating a broader selection of vehicles and faster delivery times.
The automotive retail industry’s large size, fragmentation, and lack of differentiated offerings present an opportunity for disruption. We have demonstrated that our custom-built business model can capitalize on this opportunity. From the launch of our first market in January 2013 through December 31, 2023, we purchased, reconditioned, sold, and delivered 1.7 million retail vehicles to customers through our website, cumulatively generating $50.1 billion in revenue. Our sales have grown since our inception as we have increased our market penetration in our existing markets and added new markets. As of December 31, 2023, we have established a logistics network and local marketing presence in 316 metropolitan cities and our in-house distribution network services 81.1% of the U.S. population, and in the long term we plan to continue to expand our population coverage.
Industry Background & Market Opportunity
Large and Fragmented Market
The U.S. automotive industry generated approximately $1.2 trillion in sales in 2022, according to a 2023 NADA Auto Retailing market summary. Further, automotive and auto parts sales represented roughly 22% of the U.S. retail economy in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Based on Cox Automotive data, there were an estimated 35.9 million used vehicle transactions in 2023.
The used car retail industry is highly fragmented. As of 2021, the largest dealer brand commanded approximately 2.3% of the U.S. market and the top 100 used car retailers collectively held approximately 11.1% market share, according to Automotive News. Additionally, consumers are often dissatisfied with the traditional used car buying process. According to the 2023 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study, only 68% of used car buyers were satisfied with the experience. The traditional used car retailing model is costly, operationally challenging and difficult to scale. Providing an end-to-end solution requires inspection, repair, reconditioning and showroom facilities, as well as inventory sourcing and financing capabilities, substantially all of which is traditionally done at each dealership location. Additional variable costs include the salaries of on-site employees, inventory financing fees, and vehicle transportation costs.
Additional challenges in automotive retailing, both online and offline, stem from the following unique characteristics of selling cars:
• big ticket item, often representing the second most expensive purchase many consumers make and finance, and one of the customer’s largest and longest life cycle purchases;
• range of taste in make, model, body style, price, year, mileage, color, drivetrain, and features;
• complex transaction often involving a vehicle trade-in, financing, and the purchase of add-on service products to protect the customer’s investment;
• reliance on third parties for critical business functions; and
• state and local regulatory variability.
The Way Consumers Buy Cars Is Changing
Consumers no longer rely solely on traditional media and dealerships to discover and research vehicles. In fact, the 2023 Car Buyer Journey report from Cox Automotive indicates that a typical used car buyer spends approximately seven hours researching his or her prospective car purchase online.
As e-commerce has become more established, reaching 15.6% of total retail sales in the U.S. during the first three quarters of 2023 according to the U.S. Census Bureau, consumers have become more comfortable buying taste-driven, higher-priced products such as consumer electronics and home furnishings online. Similarly, auto consumers are interested in e-commerce solutions for their car purchasing needs - 64% of buyers prefer to experience more of the purchase process online, compared to their last vehicle purchase, according to the 2021 Digitization of End to End Retailing report from Cox Automotive.
What Auto Consumers Want
As a result of the unique aspects of purchasing a vehicle, consumers have a distinct set of expectations that are challenging for traditional used car retailers to address.
• Wide selection. Automobiles vary widely in model, style, color, age and price, and consumers exhibit differing tastes, style, and purchasing goals and budgets. This requires dealers to maintain a broad inventory and offer multiple financing, warranty and service plan choices.
• Traditional used car retailers are limited by staging capacity and anticipated local demand at each dealership; they generally lack the logistical capabilities to source vehicles from other locations quickly and cost-effectively. Additionally, even as traditional used car retailers add new store locations, it remains
difficult to create broad diversity of inventory among stores because each lot requires the highest demand units, creating redundancies.
• Value. Auto consumers want consistent quality and fair value.
• Traditional used car retailers have high overhead costs and must pass these costs on to their customers.
• Confidence in quality. Auto consumers want to have comfort that the vehicle they purchase is mechanically sound and will not require costly repairs or replacement in the near term.
• Traditional used car retailers may lack the scale and expertise to consistently purchase high-quality vehicles and uniformly recondition them, increasing the incidence of selling a "lemon."
• Control and no pressure. Auto consumers want to feel in control of the buying process, without being pressured.
• According to a 2021 Gallup Poll, only 43% of American consumers view the automotive industry positively. The unfavorable consumer sentiment towards the automotive industry creates an opportunity to provide a pressure-free customer experience, through increased control over the purchase process.
• Fast, simple purchasing process. Auto consumers want their transaction to be convenient, fair and on their own desired timeline.
• Buying a car at a traditional auto dealership is often a multi-part transaction including vehicle purchase, trade-in, financing and complementary products, and requires nearly three hours on average, according to the 2023 Car Buyer Journey report from Cox Automotive.
Carvana’s Solution
In response to these evolving consumer needs, we built Carvana to provide a no-pressure, no-haggle experience with flexible and fast transactions. Consumers can research and identify a vehicle, inspect it using interactive high-definition photography, obtain financing and warranty coverage, value their current vehicle, complete their purchase, and schedule delivery or pick up, all from our online platform. Our uniformed employees deliver cars to customers in our markets in branded haulers as soon as the same day in certain markets, or customers can pick vehicles up at one of our 38 vending machines. We offer a seven-day return policy on all of our cars sold. The sales process we have built enables our customers to execute their purchases, once a car has been selected, in as little as 10 minutes, and obtain a conditional offer for their current vehicle in as little as two minutes.
We aim to deliver the best selection, best value, and best experience for used car buyers and sellers.
The Best Selection
As of December 31, 2023, we offer all customers a nationally pooled inventory of over 33,000 high-quality used vehicles on our website. We and our partners evaluate and recondition all of the vehicles that we own and offer for sale, which we perform at scale across our network of inspection and reconditioning centers ("IRCs") or auction locations with reconditioning capacity. Our customer research indicates that size and range of selection are primary determinants of where customers will transact. We use proprietary algorithms to optimize our inventory acquisition based on extensive used vehicle market and customer behavior data. Furthermore, our nationally pooled inventory system maximizes the breadth of vehicle selection for our customers in any given location. This results in a higher likelihood that customers are able to find the make, model, year, and color combination that they desire. In contrast, traditional dealerships are limited in range of selection because they typically optimize a local inventory of a few hundred vehicles at each dealership location, even if they own thousands of vehicles across multiple distributed locations.
The Best Value
Our proprietary technology and vertically integrated business model allow us to enjoy a significantly lower variable cost structure at scale versus traditional dealerships and to provide substantial value to our customers. We do not require a network of brick-and-mortar dealerships, staffed with sales personnel; instead, we utilize both an in-house logistics network and patented vending machines to facilitate vehicle delivery and pick-ups. Furthermore, we are able to provide personalized and
highly transparent financing terms based on basic customer information that results in faster transaction times, clear lending terms, and competitive interest rates.
The Best Experience
We aim to provide the best car buying and selling experience available for our customers through a fully integrated, convenient online experience. Our patented 360-degree vehicle imaging technology provides transparency by allowing customers to view vehicle features and imperfections. We also provide automated vehicle valuations for buying vehicles from customers with or without a retail purchase, automated financing, vehicle service contracts ("VSC"), auto insurance, GAP waiver coverage, limited warranty, and other ancillary products. Customers can easily select among thousands of preapproved financing terms and receive approval in seconds.
We offer a premium fulfillment experience with pick-up and delivery options, including pick-up at our vending machines or hubs, and as soon as same day deliveries, depending on the market. Our in-house customer advocates are available to answer customer questions that arise throughout the process. At every customer touch point, we strive to provide the level of customer service that makes purchasing a car from us an enjoyable, memorable experience. Finally, we offer seven-day return and 100-day limited warranty policies with every car we sell, subject to a deductible. We believe that our customers value the ease of use and transparency of our platform. They have responded favorably to our solution, as illustrated by the ratings we receive. Our customers rated us an average of 4.7 out of 5.0 as of December 31, 2023 based on over 195,000 satisfaction surveys from our inception through December 31, 2023. These positive reactions create opportunities for repeat customers and a strong referral network.
Strengths & Competitive Advantages
Our business model is disrupting the traditional used vehicle sales model. As discussed below under Our Growth Strategies, during continued macroeconomic uncertainty, our highest priority remains to provide exceptional customer experiences while increasing operating efficiency. We expect to use the strengths of our business model to support efficient growth in retail units sold and increase our gross profit per unit. Since our inception in 2012, we have been developing and leveraging the following key strengths of our robust platform, which we believe provide significant competitive advantages.
Purpose-Built Vertically Integrated E-commerce Platform
We built our used car e-commerce platform because we believe a lower and differentiated cost structure is critical to providing a seamless, best-in-class car buying and selling experience. We believe that traditional dealerships and other technology-enabled auto platforms do not provide this type of experience, and that our end-to-end model allows us to offer a superior solution while reducing our cost of operations and enhancing our ability to offer complementary products and services. Our vertically integrated platform gives us control of all critical operations and transaction elements, which facilitates a fast, simple, and consistent user experience. We control the algorithms that help determine the vehicles we make available to our customers, the prices of those vehicles, the financing terms, VSC and GAP waiver coverage options, and the trade-in values we offer. Additionally, we control the logistics infrastructure that enables us to offer customers fast, specific, and reliable delivery and pick-up times. We have invested heavily in our custom designed website to provide a cutting-edge user interface and have built a team of in-house customer advocates that is dedicated to providing first-rate customer service.
Differentiated Shopping Experience
We have developed technology that makes the online vehicle purchasing process intuitive, transparent and fun. Our patented photo technology, paired with custom photo processing and display technology, provides an interactive way for consumers to search for vehicles and take a virtual tour of the interior and exterior of a vehicle using annotated, high-definition photography. We believe this technology, coupled with our certification process and seven-day return policy, generates the confidence and trust in our platform needed to buy a car online.
Proprietary Financing Technology
Our differentiated financing solutions provide customers with nearly instantaneous credit decisions as well as flexibility and transparency in financing their vehicle purchase. We preapprove thousands of down payment and monthly payment combinations that allow customers to choose their preferred financing. We preapprove these terms utilizing "soft credit checks" which do not impact a customer’s credit unless they complete a purchase and financing transaction. Due to our relatively low car prices, our customers generally have lower PTI (Payment to Income) ratios, lower LTV (Loan to Value) ratios, or higher
quality vehicles underlying their financing transactions than they would have at higher prices. This significantly enhances the quality of the loans that we generate and the premium we can capture when we sell them through securitization transactions or to our financing partners.
Efficient Logistics Network and Attractive Fulfillment Experience
We have developed proprietary logistics software and an in-house delivery network that differentiates us from competitors by allowing us to predictably and efficiently transport cars while providing customers a distinctive fulfillment experience. Our home delivery is typically conducted by a Carvana employee on a branded delivery truck. Customers in certain markets can also pick up their vehicles at one of our patented car vending machines, which are multi-story glass towers that store purchased vehicles. These vending machines provide an attractive and unique experience for our customers and develop brand awareness while lowering our variable fulfillment expenses. Following the opening of a vending machine in one of our markets, our market penetration has typically seen a meaningful increase while our variable operating costs per car sold have typically decreased. In the long-term, we intend to grow our logistics network and build vending machines in many of the metropolitan markets that we serve.
Scaled Used Vehicle Infrastructure
As of December 31, 2023, we leverage a network of reconditioning centers throughout the U.S. and supporting software for our vehicle reconditioning and logistics activities that required significant investment in time and capital to develop. We believe these facilities at full utilization would give us capacity to inspect and recondition 1.3 million cars per year. Our proprietary inventory management system and Transportation Management System ("TMS"), combined with our expertise and experience gained from operating these facilities, position us well to continue to build out additional reconditioning and distribution centers as needed.
Scale Driving Powerful Network Effects
Our business benefits from powerful network effects. Our logistics capabilities, when fully utilized, could allow us to offer almost every car in the Carvana inventory to customers across all of our markets. Over time, we anticipate further expanding our national inventory and promoting these network effects.
Our Growth Strategies
The foundation of our business is retail vehicle unit sales. This drives the majority of our revenue and allows us to capture additional revenue streams associated with financing, VSCs, auto insurance and GAP waiver coverage, as well as trade-in vehicles. As we evolve, we believe we will continue to improve conversion on these revenues and expand our offering of complementary products. However, all of these additional revenue opportunities are derived from retail vehicle unit sales and, as a result, our growth strategies are primarily focused on this metric.
Our ability to generate vehicle sales is a function of our market penetration in existing markets, the number of markets we operate in, and our ability to build and maintain our brand by offering great value, transparency and outstanding customer service. Since launching Carvana eleven years ago, our vertically integrated, customer-centered offering has enabled us to become one of the largest used automotive retailers in the U.S. for the year ended December 31, 2023. In 2022, as a result of changes in the economy, the market, and the industry, we shifted our priorities to focus on driving profitability through fundamental operating efficiency. We carried these profitability initiatives forward throughout 2023, in which we sought to rapidly decrease expenses while optimizing for volume flexibility. During the current macroeconomic uncertainty, and as we continue current initiatives to bolster unit economics, our highest priority will continue to be providing exceptional customer experiences while improving efficiency and maximizing our infrastructure to support efficient growth in retail units sold. However, our long-term strategy is to continue growing our vehicle unit sales, market penetration, number of markets, and complementary product revenues while enhancing competitive positioning by executing the following key elements of our growth strategy:
Increase Sales Through Further Penetration of Our Existing Markets
Our growth has historically been driven by increasing market penetration in our existing markets. Due to the current macroeconomic environment and our profitability initiatives, we are focusing on operating efficiencies in the short term.
However, our long-term plan includes marketing and actively building our brand image and awareness in existing markets by improving our operations, opening additional vending machines, and increasing our inventory size.
Optimize Our Inventory Selection
As discussed above, while, in furtherance of our profitability initiatives, we have been focusing on normalizing our inventory in the short term, as the Company returns to growth, we anticipate continuing to optimize and broaden the selection of vehicles we make available to our customers. Expanding our inventory selection increases the likelihood that each visitor to our site finds a vehicle that matches his or her preferences and benefits all existing markets simultaneously due to our nationally pooled inventory model. Expanding our inventory selection depends on our ability to source and acquire a sufficient number of appropriate used vehicles, including acquiring more vehicles from customers, to develop processes for effectively utilizing capacity in our IRCs, and to hire and train employees to staff these centers. With the addition of ADESA's 56 auction sites, we estimate that 80% of the U.S. population is now within 100 miles of an IRC or auction site, which shortens the distance from our inventory pools to our customers, thereby reducing delivery times, which, all else equal, should increase conversions.
Continue to Innovate and Extend Our Technology Leadership
In the long term, we will continue to make significant investments in improving and adding to our customer offering. We believe that the complexity of automotive retail transactions provides substantial opportunity for technology investment and that our leadership and continued growth will enable us to responsibly invest in further separating ourselves from our competitors’ offerings. In addition to our own internal developments, we have acquired purpose-built technology and employees from third-party companies, which we believe have not only extended our technology leadership, but added talented entrepreneurs to our team.
Continue to Enhance Our Mobile Sales Platform
We will continue investing in our mobile platform to enhance our customers’ ability to search for, research, finance, sell, and purchase vehicles entirely on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. As discussed above, a typical car buyer spends approximately seven hours conducting online research before purchasing a vehicle, according to the 2023 Car Buyer Journey report from Cox Automotive. In addition, a 2022 Pew Research study indicates that 76% of U.S. adults say they make purchases using a mobile device and one in three make mobile purchases weekly. Growth in mobile-only sales depends on our ability to deliver an innovative, appealing mobile experience, as well as customers’ tastes for buying exclusively on mobile devices.
Develop Broad Consumer Awareness of Our Brand
We believe our brand development efforts meaningfully impact our ability to acquire new customers. We intend to continue attracting new customers through advertising, public relations, customer referrals and customers selling us their vehicles. We also have built and in the long term, we plan to continue to build vending machines in additional markets to capitalize on word-of-mouth publicity in building awareness of our brand.
Generate Referrals and Repeat Customers
Our growth is enhanced by providing a superior customer experience, which drives our ability to generate customer referrals and repeat sales.
Develop New Products
We plan to continue leveraging our existing e-commerce and logistics infrastructure to increase monetization opportunities by introducing new complementary products and services. The car purchasing and ownership cycle provides many opportunities to add value for our customers and our technology expertise and process automation position us well to provide these services in unique and differentiated ways.
Customer Lifecycle
Search and Discovery. We have developed a mobile-optimized website, where prospective car buyers can immediately begin browsing, researching, filtering and identifying their choice from an inventory of over 33,000 total website units that we offer for sale. We have also developed a series of innovative features to enhance the customer experience on our website and
enable better product discovery, such as highly engaging visual imagery and merchandising, as well as easy-to-use site navigation tools and personalization features. We also integrate with various vehicle data providers for vehicle feature and option information as a research tool to assist our customers with their purchase decisions.
Virtual Tour. Once customers select a vehicle, they have the ability to take an annotated virtual vehicle tour on our website, which includes a 360-degree view of the interior and exterior of the actual vehicle. This interactive tour allows customers to review vehicle imperfections through high-definition photography and provides them with an extensive list of vehicle details, accessories and safety features presented in an intuitive and easy to review manner.
Seamless Transaction Technology. Once customers have chosen a vehicle, our platform allows them to complete the purchase in as little as 10 minutes, saving them both time and money.
• Financing. We preapprove thousands of down payment and monthly payment combinations that allow customers to choose their preferred financing. Our website includes unique, highly engaging, and intuitive financing tools that are transparent and demonstrate the relationship between preapproved down payment, monthly payment, and term combinations. Our innovative financing tool allows borrowers to adjust permutations of their preapproved credit terms, including down payment, monthly payment, and loan term to select a personal payment plan. Our customers can obtain a preapproval decision in seconds generated by our proprietary credit scoring and deal structuring algorithms for every car in our inventory. This involves a short process that does not impact customers’ credit unless they pursue a purchase and finance transaction.
• Complementary products. Our customers can further supplement their online vehicle purchase by electing to purchase a fully integrated VSC. In order to help improve the transaction experience, we evaluate numerous options to ultimately provide each customer with personalized options for VSCs. Customers in most states financing their purchase with us are also offered GAP waiver coverage, customized by term length, during checkout. We have also partnered with Root, Inc. ("Root") to offer an integrated auto insurance solution, through which customers in most states may conveniently access and purchase auto insurance directly from the Carvana e-commerce platform.
• Sell a vehicle. For customers interested in trading-in or selling us their vehicle without the purchase of a retail vehicle, our online tool provides customers with an automated offer for their existing vehicle that can be applied to any vehicle purchase or paid directly without an associated vehicle purchase. In either case, a customer can receive a conditional offer for their vehicle from our site simply by answering a few questions about the vehicle condition and features. The customer can then schedule a time to have the vehicle picked up at their home and receive payment. This process eliminates the need to visit a dealership or negotiate a private sale.
• Documentation and payment. To further improve the ease of purchasing and financing vehicles, complementary products, and trade-ins, we have developed a seamless, fully integrated online documentation process. We have established partnerships with several technology providers that allow for automated down payment, income verification, and payment processing through simple, easy to use tools, such as the ability to take pictures of required documents with a smartphone.
Fulfillment. Customers can choose to have their vehicle delivered or pick up their vehicle at one of our patented vehicle vending machines, depending on the market. In certain markets, we can deliver cars as soon as the same day with a Carvana-uniformed employee in a branded, custom single-car hauler. Our vending machines provide an attractive and unique customer pick-up experience that many customers choose. At our vending machines, the customer deposits a Carvana-branded token into a coin slot and an automated platform selects the customer’s car from the multi-story tower and delivers it to a garage bay where the customer is waiting with a Carvana delivery advocate.
Post-sale customer support. Once customers have their car, our customer advocates manage the post-sale coordination and service call process including helping customers with returns or exchanges pursuant to our seven-day return policy. Given the return rates we have seen and the cost to us of honoring the return policy, we believe the peace of mind our customers gain from our seven-day return policy supports the cost of this offering. Our customers rated us an average of 4.7 out of 5.0 as of December 31, 2023, based on over 195,000 satisfaction surveys we solicited from our inception through December 31, 2023. These positive reactions create opportunities for repeat customers and a strong referral network.
Vehicle Lifecycle
Vehicle acquisition. We primarily acquire our used vehicle inventory directly from customers when they trade in or sell us their vehicles and through the large and liquid national used-car auction market. Acquiring directly from customers eliminates
auction fees and provides more diverse vehicles. The remainder of our inventory is acquired from vehicle finance and leasing companies, rental car companies, and other suppliers. We use proprietary algorithms to determine which cars to bid on at auction and how much to bid. Our software sifts through over 100,000 vehicles per day and filters out vehicles with poor condition ratings or other unacceptable attributes, and can evaluate the tens of thousands of potential vehicle purchases that remain per day, creating a competitive advantage versus in-person sourcing methods generally used by traditional dealerships. Once our algorithms have identified a suitable vehicle for purchase, bids are verified and executed by a centralized team of inventory-sourcing professionals. For vehicles sold to us through our website, we use proprietary algorithms to determine an appropriate offer. We assess vehicles on the basis of quality, inventory fit, consumer desirability, relative value, expected reconditioning costs, and vehicle location to identify what we believe represent the most in-demand and profitable vehicles to acquire for inventory. We utilize a broad range of data sources, including proprietary site data, and a variety of external data sources to support our assessments.
Inspection and reconditioning. Once we acquire a vehicle, we leverage our in-house logistics or a vendor to transport the vehicle to an inspection and reconditioning center or auction location with reconditioning capacity, at which point the vehicle is entered into our inventory management system. We then begin an inspection process covering controls, features, brakes, tires, and cosmetics. Each IRC includes trained technicians, vehicle lifts, paint-less dent repair, and paint capabilities and receives on-site support from vendors with whom we have integrated systems to ensure ready access to parts and materials. When an inspection is complete, we estimate the necessary reconditioning cost for the vehicle to meet our standards and expected timing for that vehicle to be made available for sale on our website.
Photography and merchandising. To provide transparency to our customers, our patented, automated photo technology captures a 360-degree exterior and interior virtual tour of each vehicle in our website inventory. Our photo technology photographs the interior and exterior of the vehicle while technicians annotate material defects based on visibility-threshold category. We also feature integrations with various vehicle data providers for vehicle feature and option information. We have instituted a unified cosmetic standard across all IRCs and certain auction sites to better ensure a consistent customer experience.
Transportation and fulfillment. Third-party vehicle transportation is often slow, expensive, and unreliable. To address these challenges, we built an in-house auto logistics network backed by our proprietary TMS to transport our vehicles to customers in our markets. The system is based on a "hub and spoke" model, which connects all IRCs to vending machines and hubs via our owned and leased fleet of multi-car and single car haulers. Our TMS allows us to efficiently manage locations, routes, route capacities, trucks, and drivers while also dynamically optimizing for speed and cost. We store inventory primarily at the IRCs and other sites, and when a vehicle is sold, it is delivered directly to customers in our markets or transported to a vending machine or certain hubs for pick-up by the customer. Due to our robust and proprietary logistics infrastructure, we are able to offer our customers and operations team highly accurate predictions of vehicle availability, minimizing unanticipated delays and ensuring a seamless and reliable customer experience.
Markets and Population Coverage
As of December 31, 2023, we have established a logistics network and local marketing presence in 316 metropolitan cities and have purchased, reconditioned, sold, and delivered over 1.7 million retail vehicles since the launch of our first market in January 2013. As of December 31, 2023, our 316 markets serviced 81.1% of the U.S. population. We calculate our population coverage as the population in our open markets at the end of the period as a percentage of the total metropolitan statistical area ("MSA") population in the U.S., based on 2015 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. We are committed to providing an honest, transparent, and customer-centric used car buying and selling experience online, which is achieved through our hub and spoke market approach. Our focus is on serving our markets and providing the best possible car buying and selling experience to our customers at a low, transparent cost. Our established logistics network and ability to deliver or pick up any car in our inventory on Carvana-branded haulers to customers within our markets allow us to provide a low-cost, simple car buying and selling experience.
Marketing
We believe our customer base is relatively similar to the overall market for used cars at average price points of our vehicles, with a slight shift toward younger customers. Our sales and marketing efforts utilize a multi-channel approach, built on a seasonality-adjusted, market-based model budget. Subject to our profitability initiatives, we utilize a combination of brand building as well as direct response channels to efficiently seed and scale our local markets. Our paid advertising efforts include, but are not limited to, advertisements through national and local television, search engine marketing, inventory site listing, retargeting, organic referral, display, out-of-home, digital video, digital radio, direct mail, and branded pay-per-click channels. We believe our strong customer focus ensures customer loyalty which can drive both repeat purchases and referrals. In addition
to our paid channels, we intend to attract new customers through enhancing our earned media and public relations efforts and further investing in our patented vending machines.
Competition
The U.S. used car marketplace is highly fragmented. As of 2021, the largest dealer brand commanded approximately 2.3% of the U.S. market and the top 100 used car retailers collectively held approximately 11.1% market share, according to Automotive News. We believe the primary competitive factors in this market include transparency, convenience, price, selection, and vehicle quality. Our current competitors can be largely classified into the following segments:
• franchised dealerships;
• independent dealerships; and
• online dealerships/marketplaces.
A number of used vehicles are also bought and sold through privately negotiated transactions.
We believe that our vertically integrated business model provides a meaningful and sustainable competitive advantage.
Technology
Our business is driven by data and technology at all stages of the process, from inventory purchasing, reconditioning, photography, and annotation through online merchandising, sales, automobile financing, trade-ins, logistics, and delivery. Carvana’s proprietary and exclusive-use technology portfolio includes:
• a decision model for consolidating internal and external data to provide profitability estimates for inventory available for purchase;
• a custom-built inventory management system that handles vehicles from acquisition through photography;
• a custom-built automated photography technology system that combines high-quality photos to produce an interactive, 360-degree virtual tour of both the exterior and interior of the vehicle, and creates a 3D model of the car allowing for future innovations;
• a website that includes advanced filtering and search technology that helps customers find a car that suits their tastes;
• a logistical model to optimize the transport of purchased inventory to and from the customer;
• a custom automated delivery tower, or vending machine, including customer experience enhancements such as automatically generated video (suitable for posting to social media) that captures the customer’s pick-up experience; and
• sophisticated predictive models and application programming interfaces developed for our automobile finance services and consumer lending applications, process, and terms.
We also rely on third-party technology, including the following:
• customer identity verification;
• transportation fleet telemetry;
• network infrastructure for hosting the website and inventory data;
• software libraries, development environments, and tools;
• services to allow customers to digitally sign contracts;
• customer service call center management software; and
• automation controls and software for the vending machine.
Organizational Structure
The following chart summarizes our organizational structure as of December 31, 2023. This chart is provided for illustrative purposes only and does not purport to represent all legal entities owned or controlled by us:
(1) Shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock vote as a single class. Each outstanding share of Class A common stock is entitled to one vote on all matters to be voted on by stockholders generally. The shares of Class B common stock have no economic rights. Each share of our Class B common stock held by Ernest Garcia II, Ernest Garcia III and entities controlled by one or both of them (collectively, the "Garcia Parties") entitles its holder to ten votes on all matters to be voted on by stockholders generally for so long as the Garcia Parties maintain direct or indirect beneficial ownership of at least 25% of the outstanding shares of Class A common stock (determined on an as-exchanged basis assuming that all of the Class A common units of Carvana Group ("Class A Units") and Class B common units of Carvana Group ("Class B Units") were exchanged for Class A common stock). All other shares of our Class B common stock entitle their holder to one vote per share on all matters to be voted on by stockholders generally. In accordance with the exchange agreement (the "Exchange Agreement") entered into in connection with the organizational transactions, LLC Unitholders (as defined in Note 11 — Stockholders' Equity (Deficit)) are entitled to exchange LLC Units (as defined in Note 1 — Business Organization), together with shares of Class B common stock in the case of certain Class A Units, for shares of Class A common stock determined in accordance with the Exchange Agreement or, at our election, for cash. Each outstanding share of Class A common stock has one preferred share purchase right attached, as further discussed in Note 11 — Stockholders' Equity (Deficit).
(2) We have short-term revolving facilities with an aggregate borrowing capacity of $4.2 billion. One of the facilities is a floor plan facility used to finance our used vehicle inventory, which is secured by our vehicles, general intangibles, accounts receivable, and finance receivables. The other facilities finance our finance receivables held by wholly-owned bankruptcy remote subsidiaries by Carvana, LLC and are secured by those receivables. As of December 31, 2023, the outstanding balance under these facilities was $668 million. See Note 10 — Debt Instruments.
(3) As of December 31, 2023, we had a principal balance, net of unamortized debt issuance costs, unamortized premium, and accrued PIK interest, of $4.6 billion under our Senior Notes. See Note 10 — Debt Instruments.
*All internal cross-references to Notes 1- 20 herein are to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data," of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Human Capital
Carvana’s mission is to change the way people buy cars, and achieving that mission would not be possible without attracting, engaging, and retaining high quality teammates who view their work as more than just a job. We believe in the importance of our employees’ satisfaction and development and we continually invest in them by further developing internal recruiting, talent development, human resources, and other teams, committees, and programs that may from time to time be supplemented by external resources, including surveys each quarter to gauge employee satisfaction.
We have developed discrete programs focused on these investments that include career paths, mentorship opportunities, promotions, training, and diversity and inclusion. These internal programs are designed to, among other things, grow our employees into leadership and management positions and foster a culture of inclusion. For example, our Carvana Communities program supports employees in creating and leading company affinity groups that are sponsored by a senior leader and designed to connect groups with a mission of support, inclusion, and connection throughout all of Carvana. Additionally, our Learning Management System provides broader access to training and development information and resources across Carvana.
We consider our relationship with our employees to be positive, and it is because of their passion and hard work that Carvana is now one of the largest used automotive retailer in the U.S. As of December 31, 2023, we had over 13,700 full-time and part-time employees.
Intellectual Property
We protect our intellectual property through a combination of trademarks, domain names, copyrights, trade secrets, patents, and contractual provisions and restrictions on access and use of our proprietary information and technology.
As of December 31, 2023, we hold 32 issued U.S. patents, which cover our vending machine technology, photo technology, website user interface technology, personalization methods for displaying digital media and imaging technology, and one issued international patent covering our photo technology.
We have 21 domestic trademark registrations and six international trademarks in active use, including registrations for "Carvana," the Carvana design mark, the Carvana logo, and various slogans.
We are the registered holder of a variety of domestic and international domain names, including "carvana.com."
In addition to the protection provided by our intellectual property rights, we enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with our new employees, consultants, contractors, and business partners. In addition, all new employees and contractors execute intellectual property assignment agreements. We further control the use of our proprietary technology and intellectual property through provisions in both our general and product-specific terms of use on our website.
In addition, we have a cross-license agreement with DriveTime Automotive Group, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, other than us, "DriveTime") pursuant to which DriveTime has obtained limited licenses to some of our intellectual property.
Seasonality
Used vehicle sales generally exhibit seasonality with sales peaking late in the first calendar quarter and diminishing through the rest of the year, with the lowest relative level of vehicle sales expected to occur in the fourth calendar quarter. Due to our historical rapid growth, our overall sales patterns in the past have not reflected the general seasonality of the used vehicle industry. However, as our business and markets have and continue to mature, our results have become more reflective of typical market seasonality. Used vehicle prices also exhibit seasonality, with used vehicles depreciating at a faster rate in the last two quarters of each year and a slower rate in the first two quarters of each year, all other factors being equal. We expect to experience seasonal and other fluctuations in our quarterly operating results, including as a result of macroeconomic conditions, which may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
Government Regulation
Industry and Vehicle Dealer Laws and Regulations
Various aspects of our business are or may be subject to U.S. federal, state, and municipal regulation. In particular, the advertising, sale, purchase, financing, and transport of motor vehicles are highly regulated by states in which we do business and by the U.S. federal government. The regulatory bodies that regulate the Company and our business include at the federal level: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, the United States Department of Transportation, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), and the Federal Communications Commission; at the state level: various state dealer licensing authorities, state consumer protection agencies including state attorney general offices, and state financial regulatory agencies; and at the municipal level: various municipal authorities covering licensing, zoning, occupancy, and tax obligations. We are subject to compliance audits of our operations by many of these authorities.
Certain states have concluded that our activities are subject to vehicle dealer licensing laws, requiring us to maintain a used vehicle dealer license in order to conduct business in that state. In certain other states, we have elected to obtain a vehicle dealer license to maximize operational flexibility and efficiency and invest in relationships with state regulators. We have at least one licensed facility in 35 states throughout the U.S.
Most states regulate retail installment sales, including setting a maximum interest rate, caps on certain fees, or maximum amounts financed. In addition, certain states require that we file a notice of intent or have a sales finance license or an installment sellers license in order to solicit or originate installment sales in that state. In certain other states, we have chosen to obtain such a license to invest in relationships with state regulators. We have obtained a sales finance license or installment seller license, or have filed consumer credit notices, in 29 states throughout the U.S.
Environmental Laws and Regulations
We are subject to a variety of federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations that pertain to our operations. The regulations concern air and water quality, as well as material storage, handling, and disposal. The regulations also regulate our use and operation of gasoline dispensing tanks and equipment, oil tanks, and paint booths among other things. Our business involves the use, handling, and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes, including motor oil, gasoline, solvents, lubricants, paints, and other substances. We manage our compliance through permitting, operational, and engineering controls. Compliance with these laws and regulations is not expected to have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings or competitive position in 2024.
For a discussion of the various risks we face from regulation and compliance matters, see Part I, Item 1A "Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—We operate in several highly regulated industries and are subject to a wide range of federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Changes in these laws and regulations, or our actual or alleged failure to comply with such laws and regulations, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition."
Other Information
General information about us can be found at investors.carvana.com. The information contained on or connected to our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this or any other report filed with the SEC. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, as well as any amendments to those reports, are available free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. The SEC maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy statements, and other information regarding SEC registrants, including Carvana Co.
