Auction sales volumes achieve best year since 2019

Led by commercial consignor volumes, annual auto auction sales volumes reached their highest point in six years, beat prior-year figures by more than 4% and have turned a corner from the pandemic-aftermath lows of the early 2020s.

That’s according to the latest AuctionNet data and commentary from the National Auto Auction Association, which said there were more than 7 million units sold at auction in 2025.

The last time annual auction sales were that strong was before the pandemic, when 8.2 million units were sold in 2019, NAAA said.

In addition to the 4% hike from 2024, last year’s tally was more than 17% stronger than 2022, amid the impact from pandemic-era new-car production shortages.

The banner year for wholesale volumes was led by a surge in commercial vehicle sales, which were up more than 10% year-over-year in 2025, thanks largely to gains in off-rental units up to 2 years old and stronger repossession volumes, NAAA said.

“Regarding the former, rental car companies aggressively remarketed large numbers of 2023 and 2024 model year units last year to make way for more financially viable (i.e., slower depreciating) new 2025 models, which in turn pushed the number of 1-to-2-year-old commercial vehicles sold at auction up by more than 30% year-over-year last year,” NAAA vice president Larry Dixon explained in the analysis.

“As for the latter, commercial seller auction activity for 7-plus-year-old vehicles was elevated because consumers stretched by persistently high inflation (among other factors) increasingly defaulted on their auto loan obligations booked several years ago when used-vehicle prices peaked.”

NAAA said there was an 18% hike in sales for commercial vehicles 7 years and older.

Meantime, sales of dealer-consigned vehicles were up 3% year-over-year, with late-model and older vehicles driving those gains. Within dealer consignment, there was a 10% year-over-year drop in sales of vehicles ages 3 to 5, NAAA said.

Volumes of 3-year-old vehicles continued to be challenged by the COVID-era new-car sales slump, but that could turn around soon, NAAA said.

Between 2021 and 2022, new-car sales fell from 14.9 million to 13.8 million, before rebounding to more than 15.5 million units in 2023, NAAA said.

That could free up more off-lease and late-model units this year, the association added.

“That said, a large influx of these units at auction should not be expected as dealers will gladly buy as many clean, low-mileage units as possible upstream to help satisfy consumer substitute demand relative to their far more expensive new-vehicle counterparts,” Dixon said.

A big part of the off-lease growth in 2026 and beyond is expected to be electric vehicles. And last year, sales of these units at auction were up more than 46% year-over-year, according to NAAA.

“Holding a 49% share of EV auction sales, Tesla models were again responsible for the lion’s share of EV auction sales last year, although competitive brands did carve out a larger presence through the lanes (as should be expected moving forward),” Dixon said.

“Given the large increase in new EV sales and leases that occurred in 2023, we expect to see far more electric vehicles enter the used market this year (to the tune of 250,000-plus units).”

In the month of December alone, there were 12,937 EV sales at auction, which beat prior-year figures by 43.3%.

Outside of EVs, the largest growth category in the final month of the year was for full-size pickups, whose volumes were up 11.8% year-over-year, NAAA said.

Compact crossover/SUV sales rose 11.2%, with compact luxury crossover/SUV volumes next at 10.1%.

Note: This is part of a monthly series in which Auto Remarketing shares AuctionNet data and commentary provided by the National Auto Auction Association.

As noted by the organization, more than 260 NAAA member auctions power AuctionNet, making it the most comprehensive source of wholesale auto auction sales data in the U.S. Unless otherwise noted, auction sales figures are based on total reporting auctions, the number and composition of which may vary over time.  Data below courtesy of AuctionNet/NAAA.