Our strategy in action

Our three strategic priorities
are enabling future-focused,
data-driven digital retailing

We strive to be the best place to find, buy and sell a
car in the UK — on a platform that enables data-driven
digital retailing for our customers. These three strategic
priorities sit alongside our commitment to always being
a responsible business.

Marketplace

Be the best place
to buy and sell a car

FOCUS

Our marketplace delivered robust revenue and operating profit growth. In the year our competitive position strengthened; 6x more time was spent on Autotrader than all our main competitors combined. Retailer numbers softened slightly during the year, due to both the more difficult trading conditions and the pushback related to the speed and nature of our Deal Builder product roll-out.

PROGRESS 2026

We retained record numbers of buyers, with an average number of cross-platform visits of 81.7 million per month (2025: 81.6 million).
The majority of our audience continues to come direct to us, either through our app, direct to our URL or through searches for “Autotrader”, emphasising the strength of our brand and the role we play in searching real-time inventory.
Achieved 5% ARPR growth from pricing and product initiatives, which included the launch of our Co-Driver product.
Live car listings increased marginally year-on-year to 451,000 (2025: 449,000).
Supported the EV transition, with EVs making up 24% of new car stock.

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2.5x

car leasing volumes up in 2026

Platform

Be the industry’s data
and technology platform

FOCUS

Our technology platform reflects a decade of consistent, long-term investment. We have already transitioned from legacy systems to a modern cloud-based delivery and data platform capable of managing the full data lifecycle. We’ve adopted these emerging technologies always within our existing cost base. Our AI gateway enables us to abstract our proprietary models from open-source LLMs (‘Large Language Models’), ensuring
we can integrate the latest innovations while maintaining our unique data advantage.

PROGRESS 2026

Saw strong adoption of platform data, tools and technology, with high engagement across integrated retailers and over 220 technology partners.
The number of calls on these technology and data services increased to average 155 million per month (2025: 91 million), demonstrating the embedded nature of this data into many customer systems and decision-making processes.
Launched new “I’m looking for” AI-powered suggested search, which uses a proprietary LLM to enable car buyers to search across makes and models using categories in more natural language.
Productivity improvements through AI-powered Co-Driver image and description tools.

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155m

technology and data service calls per month in 2026

Digital retailing

Be the enabler for more
to be done online

FOCUS

We are committed to delivering more, higher quality enquiries, that convert at a high rate into sale for our customers, which has always been at the core of our Deal Builder proposition. We believe doing so will drive long-term value for buyers, our retailer customers and Autotrader, whilst also being difficult for others to replicate. We have launched Buying Signals which identifies high-intent leads and buying preferences, allowing retailers to prioritise those buyers that are most ready to buy.

PROGRESS 2026

In the year, we have continued to roll out Deal Builder, with over 6.7k retailers on the product (March 2025: 2.0k) and 175k vehicles live at the end of March (March 2025: 84k).
As part of the 6.7k retailers, we have begun onboarding some of our largest customers with custom integrations.
In November 2025, we received some negative sentiment around the Deal Builder products. We subsequently held customer listening sessions, made product variations, tested various front-end consumer journeys and changed the language around “Deals” which was causing confusion for some customers.

The future of automotive is already here

Find out more about how we're helping consumers and
retailers adapt to this quickly evolving landscape and
embrace the exciting changes on the horizon.

2025 product update

c.6,700

Deal Builder customers live at the end of March 2026

175,000

vehicles live on Deal Builder at the end of March 2026

Working responsibly

Be a responsible business

FOCUS

Our ESG strategy is underpinned by our purpose of Driving Change Together. Responsibly.

This ensures we strive to make a positive difference to our people, our communities,
the industries we operate in and the wider environment to create a more accessible, equitable and sustainable future.

PROGRESS 2026

The environment

Further engagement with Government departments, including participation in Parliamentary groups and committees.
Continued our partnership with the Carbon Literacy Trust and funding of the Automotive and Digital & Tech Carbon Literacy Sector Toolkits.

Our people & communities

Developing our leaders through investment in tools and resources and our “Leader as Coach” programme.
Partnered with the Good Things Foundation to support research and strategic planning focused on digital inclusion.
Launched our first T‑Level placement and expanded our L4 software engineering apprenticeship.

Our governance & compliance

Established our Responsible Change Forum to drive forward our ESG priorities.

72%

of employees say they’re proud to work for Autotrader in 2026

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The future of automotive is already here

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