Carvana Co (CVNA) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Carvana Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Carvana 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。

I will turn the conference over to Meg Kehan, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我將把會議交給投資者關係部門的梅格·科漢 (Meg Kehan)。請繼續。

Thank you, Vash. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us on Carvana's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that this call will be simultaneously webcast on the Investor Relations section of the company's corporate website at investors.carvana.com. The third quarter shareholder letter is also posted to the IR website. Additionally, we posted 2 sets of supplemental financial tables for Q3, which can be found on the Events and Presentations page of our IR website. Joining me on the call today are Ernie Garcia, Chief Executive Officer; and Mark Jenkins, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，瓦什。女士們、先生們，下午好，感謝您參加 Carvana 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。請注意，本次電話會議將同時在公司網站investors.carvana.com 的投資者關係部分進行網路直播。第三季股東信函也發佈在IR網站上。此外，我們還發布了 2 套第三季的補充財務表格，您可以在我們的 IR 網站的活動和演示頁面上找到這些表格。今天和我一起參加電話會議的是執行長厄尼·加西亞 (Ernie Garcia)；和財務長馬克·詹金斯。

Before we start, I would like to remind you that the following discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, but not limited to, Carvana's market opportunities and future financial results that involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed here. A detailed discussion of the material factors that cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements can be found in the Risk Factors section of Carvana's most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements and risks in this conference call are based on current expectations as of today, and Carvana assumes no obligation to update or revise them whether as a result of new developments or otherwise.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，以下討論包含聯邦證券法含義內的前瞻性陳述，包括但不限於Carvana 的市場機會和未來財務業績，涉及可能導致風險和不確定性的風險和不確定性.實際結果與此處討論的結果有重大差異。有關導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述不同的重大因素的詳細討論，請參閱 Carvana 最新表格 10-K 和表格 10-Q 的風險因素部分。本次電話會議中的前瞻性陳述和風險是基於截至今天的當前預期，Carvana 不承擔因新的發展或其他原因而更新或修改這些陳述和風險的義務。

Our commentary today will include non-GAAP financial metrics. Unless otherwise specified, all references to GPU and SG&A will be to the non-GAAP metrics and all references to EBITDA will be to adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP metrics for our reported results can be found in our shareholder letter issued today, a copy of which can be found on our IR website.

我們今天的評論將包括非公認會計準則財務指標。除非另有說明，所有對 GPU 和 SG&A 的引用均指非 GAAP 指標，所有對 EBITDA 的引用均指調整後的 EBITDA。我們報告的業績的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 指標之間的調整可以在我們今天發布的股東信中找到，其副本可以在我們的 IR 網站上找到。

With that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Ernie Garcia. Ernie?

話雖如此，我想把電話轉給厄尼·加西亞。厄尼？

Thanks, Meg. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. The third quarter was another great quarter for Carvana that continued the clear momentum we've had since we rolled out our plan 18 months ago. Over that period of time, we have cut $1.2 billion in annualized SG&A expenses out of the business, which has dramatically improved our efficiency while also reducing annualized inbound transport and reconditioning COGS expenses by about $250 million annualized, which has driven up our GPU. These efforts have combined a powerful effect.

謝謝，梅格。感謝大家加入通話。第三季度對 Carvana 來說又是一個偉大的季度，它延續了自 18 個月前推出計劃以來的明顯勢頭。在此期間，我們從業務中削減了12 億美元的年化SG&A 費用，這大大提高了我們的效率，同時還減少了年化入庫運輸和整修COGS 費用約2.5 億美元，從而推動了我們的GPU 成長。這些努力結合起來產生了強大的效果。

Over the last 2 quarters, we have generated $300 million of adjusted EBITDA, with about $200 million of that, excluding nonrecurring items. These are important numbers. They send a clear message that the plan our team laid out 18 months ago was the right one. They send a clear message that our team is executing at a very high level. And most importantly, they send a clear message about the long-term power of our business model.

在過去兩個季度中，我們產生了 3 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，其中約 2 億美元，不包括非經常性項目。這些都是重要的數字。他們發出了一個明確的訊息：我們團隊在 18 個月前製定的計劃是正確的。他們發出了一個明確的訊息：我們的團隊正在以非常高的水平執行。最重要的是，它們發出了關於我們商業模式的長期力量的明確訊息。

Since we went public in 2017, we have been clear about our goal to sell millions of cars and to become the largest and most profitable automotive retailer. Two years ago, there was a general belief in our ability to become the largest, but questions remained about our ability to be the most profitable. While those 2 questions won't be definitively answered until we actually cross both milestones, the last 2 quarters provide a lot of support for our belief that we will ultimately be the most profitable automotive retailer as well.

自2017年上市以來，我們就明確了自己的目標：銷售數百萬輛汽車，成為最大、最賺錢的汽車零售商。兩年前，人們普遍相信我們有能力成為最大的公司，但我們是否有能力成為最賺錢的公司仍然存在疑問。雖然這兩個問題在我們真正跨越這兩個里程碑之前不會得到明確的答案，但過去兩個季度為我們的信念提供了許多支持，即我們最終也將成為最賺錢的汽車零售商。

In today's shareholder letter, we are providing clear evidence of this with our breakouts of our overhead and operational expenses over time. The takeaways from the data are the following: one, in step one, we successfully rightsized the operational components of the business and began making significant progress in our operational expenses per unit. Two, our efficiency gains are continuing in step two with our unit economics rapidly becoming a significant competitive advantage. And three, our current fixed cost utilization is low, providing a very clear path to both significant scale and significant cost leverage when we turn to step 3 of our plan.

在今天的股東信中，我們透過長期管理費用和營運費用的明細提供了明確的證據。從數據中得出的結論如下：第一，第一步，我們成功地調整了業務的營運組成部分，並開始在單位營運費用方面取得重大進展。第二，我們的效率提昇在第二步中持續，我們的單位經濟效益迅速成為顯著的競爭優勢。第三，我們目前的固定成本利用率較低，當我們轉向計畫的第三步時，這為實現顯著規模和顯著成本槓桿提供了非常清晰的途徑。

Our plan is working, and we are going to see it through. While it is unquestionably tempting to turn our attention back to growth, we believe it is a better long-term decision to remain disciplined to continue harvesting the efficiency gains we see in front of us before shifting our organizational focus and moving on to step 3. In the fourth quarter, we expect to continue making fundamental gains through various projects that comprise step 2. We also expect volumes to reduce relative to Q3 due to normal seasonality and potential industry softening observed over the last 4 weeks. Despite this, we continue to operate in our target unit range for step 2. The some of these dynamics lead us to expect to produce another great quarter. But as in past Q4s, we expect lower industry-wide volume, coupled with higher industry-wide depreciation rates to cause lower adjusted EBITDA than we have achieved in the past 2 quarters.

我們的計劃正在發揮作用，我們將堅持到底。雖然毫無疑問，我們很容易將注意力重新轉向成長，但我們認為，在轉移我們的組織重點並進入第三步之前，保持自律以繼續收穫我們面前的效率收益是一個更好的長期決定。在第四季度，我們預計將繼續透過構成第2 步的各種項目來取得根本性收益。由於正常的季節性和過去4 週觀察到的潛在產業疲軟，我們也預期銷售量相對於第三季將有所減少。儘管如此，我們仍繼續在第二步的目標單位範圍內運作。其中一些動態使我們預計將產生另一個偉大的季度。但與過去第四季一樣，我們預計全行業銷售下降，加上全行業折舊率上升，導致調整後 EBITDA 低於過去兩季的水平。

Looking forward, we are excited. The difficulty of 2022 wasn't how we imagined our path in the beginning, but that doesn't mean it wasn't good for us. Through it, we have come together to do our best work. We have learned the power of focus. We have gained a new appreciation for discipline. We have learned an even greater sense of urgency. And now as a result, we have competitively differentiated unit economics.

展望未來，我們興奮不已。 2022 年的困難並不是我們一開始想像的那樣，但這並不意味著它對我們不利。透過它，我們齊心協力，盡力做好工作。我們已經了解了專注的力量。我們對紀律有了新的體會。我們體會到了更大的迫切感。結果，我們現在擁有了具有競爭力的差異化單位經濟效益。

2022 has added to our arsenal. It has made us better. And while that is a change, there's a lot that remains exactly the same. We are still an ambitious group of people who care. We are still willing to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work to achieve our goals. We are still delivering new experiences to people buying and selling cars that they love. We still have a business model that is incredibly difficult to replicate and then mechanically gets better as it gets bigger. We are still just a small player in the largest retail market in the world, and we are still on the path to selling millions of cars and becoming the largest and most profitable automotive retailer.

2022 年我們的武器庫又增加了。它讓我們變得更好。雖然這是一個變化，但仍有許多內容保持不變。我們仍然是一群雄心勃勃、有愛心的人。我們仍然願意捲起袖子，為實現我們的目標而努力奮鬥。我們仍在為購買和銷售他們喜愛的汽車的人提供新的體驗。我們仍然有一個很難複製的商業模式，但隨著規模的擴大，它會自動變得更好。我們仍然只是全球最大零售市場中的一個小參與者，我們仍然走在銷售數百萬輛汽車並成為最大、最賺錢的汽車零售商的道路上。

The march continues. Mark?

遊行仍在繼續。標記？

Thank you, Ernie, and thank you all for joining us today. Our third quarter highlighted the significant and sustainable progress we have made on our path to profitability. We set third quarter company records for total GPU and adjusted EBITDA, both with and without nonrecurring benefits. As part of our earnings materials, we provide a detailed look into our Q3 results, our 3-step plan and the components of our cost structure. I'll start by summarizing 3 key takeaways.

謝謝你，厄尼，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。第三季凸顯了我們在獲利之路上取得的重大且可持續的進展。我們創下了第三季 GPU 總量和調整後 EBITDA 的公司記錄，無論是否包含非經常性收益。作為獲利材料的一部分，我們詳細介紹了第三季的業績、三步驟計畫和成本結構的組成部分。我將先總結 3 個要點。

First, in the last 2 quarters, we have clearly demonstrated the profitability of our online business model. In Q2 and Q3, we generated more than $300 million of adjusted EBITDA, which includes approximately $110 million of nonrecurring items. We did this despite carrying costs of an infrastructure that supports 3x retail unit growth and despite a difficult used vehicle industry backdrop.

首先，在過去的兩個季度，我們已經清楚地展示了我們在線業務模式的盈利能力。在第二季和第三季度，我們產生了超過 3 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，其中包括約 1.1 億美元的非經常性項目。儘管支援零售單位成長 3 倍的基礎設施成本高昂，而且二手車行業背景困難，但我們還是做到了這一點。

Second, our focus on driving fundamental operating efficiency in step 2 is generating significant unit economic gains. Of particular note, we have reduced non-vehicle retail cost of sales and operations expenses by $1,000 per retail unit in just the last 2 quarters, and we see opportunities for further gains from here.

其次，我們在第二步中對提高基本營運效率的關注正在產生顯著的單位經濟效益。特別值得注意的是，僅在過去兩個季度，我們就將每個零售單位的非車輛零售銷售成本和營運費用減少了 1,000 美元，並且我們看到了進一步收益的機會。

Third, we have significant excess capacity in our existing infrastructure to support multiples of profitable growth. We expect this growth to be paired with significant operating leverage as we leverage our underutilized overhead costs.

第三，我們現有的基礎設施產能嚴重過剩，無法支持利潤的倍數成長。我們預計這種成長將伴隨著巨大的營運槓桿，因為我們利用了未充分利用的管理成本。

Moving to our third quarter results. In the third quarter, retail units sold totaled 80,987, a decrease of 21% year-over-year and an increase of 6% sequentially. Total revenue was $2.773 billion, a decrease of 18% year-over-year and a decrease of 7% sequentially. As we previously discussed, our long-term financial goal is to generate significant GAAP net income and free cash flow. In service of this goal, in the near term, our management team remains focused on driving progress on a set of key non-GAAP financial metrics that are inputs into this long-term goal, including non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP SG&A expense and adjusted EBITDA.

轉向我們的第三季業績。第三季度，零售單位銷售量總計80,987套，較去年同期下降21%，較上季成長6%。總收入為27.73億美元，年減18%，季減7%。正如我們之前討論的，我們的長期財務目標是產生可觀的 GAAP 淨利潤和自由現金流。為了實現這一目標，在短期內，我們的管理團隊將繼續專注於推動一系列關鍵非 GAAP 財務指標的進展，這些指標將作為這一長期目標的投入，包括非 GAAP 毛利、非 GAAP SG&A費用和調整後的EBITDA。

Due to the dynamic nature of the current environment, we will focus our remaining remarks on sequential changes in these metrics. In the third quarter, non-GAAP total GPU was $6,396, a sequential decrease of $634 driven primarily by smaller benefits from nonrecurring items. Total GPU in Q3 was positively impacted by approximately $500 of nonrecurring benefits, which we described in more detail below compared to approximately $900 of benefits in Q2.

由於當前環境的動態性質，我們將把剩下的評論重點放在這些指標的連續變化上。第三季度，非 GAAP GPU 總額為 6,396 美元，較上季減少 634 美元，主要是由於非經常性項目的收益較小。第三季的 GPU 總量受到約 500 美元的非經常性收益的正面影響，與第二季約 900 美元的收益相比，我們在下面更詳細地描述了這一點。

Non-GAAP retail GPU was $2,877 versus $2,862 in Q2. Sequential changes in retail GPU were positively impacted by a $250 reduction in non-vehicle retail cost of sales and a 25-day reduction in retail average days of sale, both at a favorable end of our previous outlook range as well as wider spreads between retail and wholesale market prices, partially offset by higher retail depreciation rates, and a smaller inventory allowance adjustment benefit compared to Q2.

非 GAAP 零售 GPU 價格為 2,877 美元，而第二季為 2,862 美元。非車輛零售銷售成本減少 250 美元，零售平均銷售天數減少 25 天，對零售 GPU 的連續變化產生了積極影響，這兩者都處於我們之前展望範圍的有利一端，而且零售之間的價差擴大和批發市場價格的上漲，部分被零售折舊率上升以及與第二季相比較小的庫存補貼調整效益所抵銷。

Notably, our strength in retail GPU continues to be driven by several fundamental improvements in our business compared to our previous high watermark of FY 2021, including lower reconditioning and inbound transport costs, a higher customer sourcing rate and higher revenue from additional services.

值得注意的是，與2021 財年之前的高水位線相比，我們業務的幾項根本性改進繼續推動我們在零售GPU 領域的優勢，包括更低的翻新和入境運輸成本、更高的客戶採購率以及更高的附加服務收入。

Non-GAAP wholesale GPU was $951 in line with our outlook versus $1,228 in Q2. Sequential changes in wholesale GPU were primarily driven by higher wholesale market depreciation rates in Q3 compared to Q2, which negatively impacted wholesale vehicle volume and gross profit for wholesale units sold as well as seasonal changes in wholesale marketplace volume.

非 GAAP 批發 GPU 售價為 951 美元，符合我們的預期，而第二季為 1,228 美元。批發 GPU 的連續變化主要是由於第三季度批發市場折舊率高於第二季度，這對批發車輛銷售和批發單位銷售毛利潤以及批發市場銷售的季節性變化產生了負面影響。

Non-GAAP other GPU was $2,568 versus $2,940 in Q2. We estimate that a higher than normalized volume of loans held and sold in Q3 increased other GPU by approximately $400, other things being equal, compared to a $650 benefit in Q2. In addition, other GPU in Q3 was primarily impacted by lower origination rates relative to benchmark interest rates, partially offset by lower credit spreads.

非 GAAP 其他 GPU 的價格為 2,568 美元，而第二季為 2,940 美元。我們估計，在其他條件相同的情況下，第三季持有和出售的貸款量高於正常水平，其他 GPU 增加了約 400 美元，而第二季則增加了 650 美元。此外，第三季的其他 GPU 主要受到相對於基準利率較低的原始利率的影響，但部分被較低的信貸利差所抵消。

In Q3, we continue to make progress lowering SG&A expenses, reducing non-GAAP SG&A expense by $30 million sequentially. Notably, we reduced non-GAAP SG&A expense per retail unit by more than $400 sequentially while growing retail units sold by 6%.

第三季度，我們繼續在降低 SG&A 費用方面取得進展，以非 GAAP SG&A 費用連續減少了 3,000 萬美元。值得注意的是，我們將每個零售單位的非 GAAP SG&A 費用連續減少了 400 多美元，同時零售單位銷售增加了 6%。

In our shareholder letter and accompanying materials, we provide additional details on the components of our SG&A expense, including a breakdown of operations expenses, which are more variable in nature, and overhead expenses, which are more fixed in nature. Our significant sequential operating leverage in Q3 was driven by both continued improvement in operational expenses as well as leverage in the fixed component of our cost structure.

在我們的股東信和隨附材料中，我們提供了有關 SG&A 費用組成部分的更多詳細信息，包括營運費用（本質上更具可變性）和管理費用（本質上更固定）的細目。我們第三季顯著的連續營運槓桿是由營運費用的持續改善以及成本結構固定部分的槓桿所推動的。

Adjusted EBITDA in Q3 was positive $148 million or 5.3% of revenue. The aggregate impact to adjusted EBITDA of the previously described nonrecurring items was approximately $40 million. On September 1, 2023, we closed the previously announced corporate debt exchange offer with 96.4% of note holders agreeing to exchange $5.52 billion of our unsecured notes for cash and new secured notes, reducing total debt by over $1.325 billion, extending maturities and decreasing required cash interest payments by more than $455 million per year for the next 2 years.

第三季調整後 EBITDA 為正 1.48 億美元，佔營收的 5.3%。上述非經常性項目對調整後 EBITDA 的整體影響約為 4000 萬美元。 2023 年9 月1 日，我們結束了先前宣布的公司債務交換要約，96.4% 的票據持有人同意將我們的55.2 億美元無擔保票據交換為現金和新的有擔保票據，從而減少了超過13.25億美元的總債務，延長了期限並減少了所需的票據未來兩年每年支付的現金利息超過 4.55 億美元。

On September 30, we had approximately $3.2 billion in total liquidity resources including $1.6 billion in cash and availability under revolving facilities and $1.6 billion in secured debt capacity and unpledged beneficial interests.

截至 9 月 30 日，我們擁有約 32 億美元的總流動性資源，其中包括 16 億美元的現金和循環融資下的可用資金，以及 16 億美元的擔保債務能力和未抵押的受益權益。

Turning now to our fourth quarter outlook. While the macroeconomic and industry environment continues to be uncertain, looking toward the fourth quarter of 2023, we expect the following as long as the environment remains stable. A sequential decline in retail units sold, driven primarily by industry and seasonal patterns. Non-GAAP total GPU above 5,000 for the third consecutive quarter and positive adjusted EBITDA for the third consecutive quarter. Looking towards 2024, we expect to drive significant total GPU and adjusted EBITDA for the second consecutive year. We are excited about the path we are on, and we look forward to making continued progress toward our goal of becoming the largest and most profitable auto retailer.

現在轉向我們的第四季展望。儘管宏觀經濟和產業環境仍然存在不確定性，但展望 2023 年第四季度，只要環境保持穩定，我們預計將會出現以下情況。主要受產業和季節性模式推動，零售銷售連續下降。非 GAAP 總 GPU 連續第三季超過 5,000，調整後 EBITDA 連續第三季為正值。展望 2024 年，我們預計 GPU 總量和調整後 EBITDA 將連續第二年大幅成長。我們對我們所走的道路感到興奮，並期待在成為最大、最賺錢的汽車零售商的目標上不斷取得進展。

Thank you for your attention. We'll now take questions.

感謝您的關注。我們現在開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Chris Pierce with Needham.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自李約瑟的克里斯·皮爾斯。

Non-GAAP SG&A per unit, can it continue to go down in Q4 on the lower number of units you're guiding for? And if it can't, would that be a signal internally to turn on growth?

每單位的非 GAAP SG&A，在您指導的單位數量減少的情況下，它會在第四季度繼續下降嗎？如果不能，這是否會成為內部啟動成長的訊號？

Sure. I would say you can see that we've pushed down our dollar spend pretty consistently over the last several quarters. I think we're extremely happy with the dollar reduction this last quarter that we saw that came in the form of basically a $200 operational expense saving per unit and kind of that being offset by roughly 5,000 additional units quarter-over-quarter. So, we're clearly making pretty significant gains there.

當然。我想說的是，你可以看到我們在過去幾季中一直在持續減少美元支出。我認為我們對上個季度的美元減少感到非常高興，我們看到每單位營運費用基本上節省了 200 美元，每季增加約 5,000 單位抵消了這一損失。因此，我們顯然在這方面取得了相當大的進展。

I think that we absolutely believe that through step 2, we have additional gains to be made. We expect those gains to be across the board, both in our corporate expenses and in operational expenses. But I think as far as kind of that detailed disclosure, we're going to stick with the guidance we've provided.

我認為我們絕對相信透過第二步，我們可以獲得額外的收益。我們預計這些收益將是全面性的，無論是在我們的公司開支還是營運開支方面。但我認為就詳細披露而言，我們將堅持我們提供的指導。

Okay. And then just broadly, what will turning on growth mean because you have to get the cas to sell the car? So like -- is that something -- or turning on growth be increasing advertising to sell more cars in different geographies at a higher rate? Or would it be sourcing a greater number of cars to consumers? I'm just kind of curious how you would go about it to the extent you've had those conversations.

好的。然後，從廣義上講，由於您必須獲得 CAS 才能出售汽車，因此開啟增長意味著什麼？那麼，就像——是這樣嗎——或者說透過增加廣告來增加廣告以在不同地區以更高的速度銷售更多汽車來實現成長？或者它會向消費者購買更多數量的汽車嗎？我只是有點好奇你會如何進行這些對話。

Sure. So let me start with -- I think -- let me start with where we are. I think roughly 1.5 years ago we ticked off of this plan, we internally called that Project Catapult. And basically, everyone across the business had a series of goals in every operational group that they were aiming to hit. Many use them with (inaudible) most of them with weekly targets that we were marching to basically through Q2 of this year. We also then kicked off. We call Operation 100, which is the next series of our goals across every one of our operational groups. They also state very clear targets of the monthly and most of them weekly through Q2 of next year. I think that has clearly led to tremendous gains. At that level of focus of the discipline that we've had of making sure that we are maintaining operational excellence in that across all occasions in the company, we're performing at the best level of locations across the company.

當然。所以讓我從——我想——讓我從我們現在的處境開始。我想大約 1.5 年前我們就制定了這個計劃，我們內部稱之為 Project Catapult。基本上，整個企業的每個人在每個營運團隊中都有一系列他們想要實現的目標。許多人使用它們（聽不清楚），其中大多數都設定了我們基本上在今年第二季度實現的每週目標。我們隨後也開始了。我們稱之為“Operation 100”，這是我們每個營運團隊的下一個系列目標。他們也制定了非常明確的每月目標，其中大部分是每週目標，直到明年第二季。我認為這顯然帶來了巨大的收益。我們的紀律重點是確保我們在公司的所有場合都保持卓越的運營，我們在公司各個地點的表現都處於最佳水平。

I think it clearly led to tremendous benefits. And I think that folks have been very, very valuable. So I think the most important thing that we will do and it is time to turn to growth and Step 3. It Ian Simmonds simply to reset the entire company focus on growth goals. So I think instead everyone being focused on how I'm going to drive additional efficiency in all those targets being focused on how are we going to get more efficient as a business. Instead you focus on having the customer experience even better, how do we drive growth, how do we position the company to grow. And so I think that is the #1 thing that we will switch when we move to Step 3 from Step 2. I think the gains that we're seeing are still very significant.

我認為這顯然帶來了巨大的好處。我認為這些人非常非常有價值。因此，我認為我們要做的最重要的事情是轉向成長和第三步的時候了。伊恩·西蒙茲只是將整個公司的重點重新調整為成長目標。因此，我認為每個人都在關注我將如何提高所有這些目標的效率，而我們將如何提高企業效率。相反，您專注於提供更好的客戶體驗，我們如何推動成長，我們如何定位公司以實現成長。因此，我認為這是當我們從第 2 步轉向第 3 步時我們要切換的第一件事。我認為我們看到的收益仍然非常顯著。

And so we believe it makes sense to stick in Step 2 to for a bit longer. I think when it is time to grow, I think advertising inventory are absolutely 2 very big parts of that equation. I think we grew from 2018 Q1 through '21, Q1 at approximately 70% CAGR. During that entire time, we were clearly growing inventory pretty quickly. That was leading to increased conversion. We are growing advertising pretty quickly. I think that was partially because those customers converted even more efficiently as a result of that extra inventory, and our brand was building. And so we benefited from positive feedback throughout that entire period.

因此，我們認為在步驟 2 中堅持更長時間是有意義的。我認為，當需要成長時，我認為廣告庫存絕對是該等式中的兩個非常重要的部分。我認為從 2018 年第一季到 21 年第一季度，我們的複合年增長率約為 70%。在那段時間裡，我們的庫存顯然成長得相當快。這導致了轉換率的增加。我們的廣告成長速度非常快。我認為這部分是因為由於額外的庫存，這些客戶的轉換效率更高，而且我們的品牌正在建立。因此，我們在整個期間都受益於正面的回饋。

Over the last 18 months, the opposite has been true. Over the last 12 months, we've shrunk inventory by 50%, and we shrunk advertising by 50%. And that's clearly pushed a bit in the opposite direction. But when it's time to grow, we expect to again grow inventory, we expect to again grow advertising. I think there are other elements of positive feedback that we expect to kick off as well. And we think that, that will drive a big part of that growth.

在過去 18 個月裡，情況恰恰相反。在過去 12 個月裡，我們將庫存減少了 50%，並將廣告減少了 50%。這顯然有點朝著相反的方向發展。但到了成長的時候，我們預期庫存會再次成長，廣告也會再次成長。我認為我們也希望啟動積極回饋的其他要素。我們認為，這將推動這一成長的很大一部分。

The next question comes from Michael Baker with D.A. Davidson.

下一個問題來自 Michael Baker 和 D.A.戴維森。

So you said a lower cost structure is a competitive advantage. How does that show up? To me, that means that it means you can get aggressive in price to win back shares. Is that the right way to think about it? Or is there another way we should interpret a lower cost structure being a competitive advantage? And maybe just as a second question, I'd like to call it a follow-up as unrelated. I also heard you say the last 4 weeks have been weaker. If you could just talk about the trends through the quarter and early into the fourth quarter?

所以你說較低的成本結構是一種競爭優勢。這是怎麼看出來的？對我來說，這意味著你可以透過激進的價格來贏回股票。這是正確的思考方式嗎？或者我們可以透過另一種方式將較低的成本結構解釋為競爭優勢？也許只是作為第二個問題，我想將其稱為無關的後續問題。我還聽到你說過去 4 週的情況比較疲軟。您能否談談整個季度和第四季初的趨勢？

Sure. So I think let me start with that. I think unit economics, we view as a competitive advantage. So I think I would extend that not just the cost structure, which will hit in the moment, but also to GPU. I think a huge advantage of our business model across all the time has been our vertical integration. We're able to give customers a very high quality, very simple experience, and we're able to monetize much more of that experience than many others in the industry as a result of that vertical integration. And I think those benefits are showing up very clearly in our GPU. We just had record Q3 GPU on the order of $6,000. We had record Q2 GPU as well.

當然。所以我想讓我從這個開始。我認為單位經濟效益是我們的競爭優勢。因此，我認為我不僅會擴展目前將會出現的成本結構，還會擴展到 GPU。我認為我們的商業模式一直以來的一個巨大優勢就是我們的垂直整​​合。我們能夠為客戶提供非常高品質、非常簡單的體驗，並且由於垂直整合，我們能夠比業內許多其他公司從這種體驗中獲利更多。我認為這些優勢在我們的 GPU 中得到了非常明顯的體現。我們剛剛在第三季創下了創紀錄的 GPU，價格約為 6,000 美元。我們在第二季的 GPU 也創下了紀錄。

So I think unit economics start there, and we're able to achieve those GPU despite giving our customers significant discounts versus many of the largest players in this industry. So I think that's the starting point, I think, of the power of our model. I think now if we kind of follow that into expenses, you can see the gains that we've made in operational expenses. We're extremely proud of that. That's obviously not a super easy thing to do, especially while holding volumes flat. We've dropped our operational expenses by $200 from Q2 to Q3. We dropped by $200 from Q1 to Q2 before that. And we're now at a place where those operational expenses are actually lower than where they were in Q1 '21 and lower by about $100, give or take, versus Q1. That's good, but it doesn't sound like it's incredible progress, but I think it's much better when you take into account the fact there's clearly been quite a bit of inflation over that time.

因此，我認為單位經濟效益從這裡開始，儘管與該行業的許多最大的參與者相比，我們為客戶提供了大幅折扣，但我們仍然能夠實現這些 GPU。所以我認為這就是我們模型力量的起點。我認為現在如果我們將其納入支出，您可以看到我們在營運支出方面取得的收益。我們對此感到非常自豪。這顯然不是一件超級容易的事情，尤其是在保持成交量不變的情況下。從第二季到第三季度，我們的營運費用減少了 200 美元。在此之前，我們從第一季到第二季下降了 200 美元。現在我們的營運支出實際上低於 21 年第一季的水平，與第一季相比，或多或少降低了約 100 美元。這很好，但聽起來並不是令人難以置信的進步，但我認為，當你考慮到那段時間明顯存在相當多的通貨膨脹這一事實時，情況要好得多。

I think based on Bureau of Labor data, labor on average has been up by approximately 11% over that period. Where we do the best job that we can to compare our progress to that of other automotive retailers, generally speaking, we're seeing several hundred dollars of increases in SG&A per unit over that time period. And so I think that the gains that we've made are pretty significant. And then the sum of those things, I think, ultimately adds up to our unit economics.

我認為根據勞工局的數據，同期勞動力平均成長了約 11%。在我們盡最大努力將我們的進展與其他汽車零售商進行比較的情況下，一般來說，我們看到在此期間每單位的 SG&A 增加了數百美元。因此，我認為我們所取得的成果非常顯著。我認為，這些因素的總和最終會構成我們的單位經濟效益。

And then we do think that puts us in an incredibly powerful position. That gives us a lot of options in the future. I'm not sure that we are exactly sure the ways in which we will express those options, but it undoubtedly gives us a lot of options.

我們確實認為這使我們處於極其強大的地位。這給了我們未來很多選擇。我不確定我們是否完全確定表達這些選項的方式，但它無疑給了我們很多選擇。

On your second question, I would just say the last several years has been -- have been very unique. I think there's been a ton of distortions in the market that have made things a little bit harder to kind of precisely forecast. Last year, we saw rates going up quite a bit in '21. We saw in the fourth quarter in '21. We saw prices going up quite a bit. So I think it's a little bit hard to know exactly what to expect out of seasonality. I do think over the last 4 weeks, given all the data sources that we have, we can see kind of industry-wide data. It looks like things have probably been a bit softer, not to a degree that I think is unique or merits a ton of attention, but definitely, that's been the direction. And so we'll see where that goes. Like I said, I think it's a little bit hard to even figure out exactly what seasonality should be right now given all the changes we've seen over the last couple of years.

關於你的第二個問題，我只想說過去幾年非常獨特。我認為市場存在大量扭曲，這使得精確預測變得有點困難。去年，我們看到 21 年利率大幅上漲。我們在 21 年第四季看到了這一點。我們看到價格上漲了很多。所以我認為確切地知道季節性會發生什麼有點困難。我確實認為，在過去 4 週內，考慮到我們擁有的所有資料來源，我們可以看到全行業的資料。看起來事情可能有點軟化，沒有達到我認為獨特或值得大量關注的程度，但毫無疑問，這就是方向。所以我們會看看它會走向何方。就像我說的，我認為考慮到過去幾年我們所看到的所有變化，現在要準確地弄清楚季節性應該是什麼是有點困難的。

Our next question comes from Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Seth Basham。

So my question is when you pivot to growth for the first couple of quarters that you do that, do you think that your leverage associated with your excess capacity will more than offset the cost to support that growth in terms of advertising, staffing, vehicle acquisition and operational inefficiencies that could result?

所以我的問題是，當你在前幾個季度轉向成長時，你是否認為與過剩產能相關的槓桿將足以抵消在廣告、人員配置、車輛採購方面支持增長的成本以及可能導致的運營效率低下？

So let me start with I think -- let me start with your point to history. Well, let me start with our expectations. Our expectations are that we expect our operational expenses to go down from here. over time, and we think they can go down despite growing over time, and we expect our corporate expenses per unit to absolutely go down as we grow. So those are our expectations. In the data we provided, we gave a -- we provided a chart that kind of breaks out our operational expense per unit going back in time all the way to Q1 2018. And I do think looking at the period from Q1 2018 through Q1 '21 is somewhat useful.

讓我從我的想法開始——讓我從你對歷史的觀點開始。好吧，讓我從我們的期望開始。我們的預期是我們的營運費用將從現在開始下降。隨著時間的推移，我們認為，儘管隨著時間的推移，它們會下降，而且我們預計，隨著我們的成長，我們的單位成本絕對會下降。這些就是我們的期望。在我們提供的數據中，我們提供了一個圖表，該圖表詳細列出了我們的每單位營運費用，可以追溯到2018 年第一季度。我確實認為看看從2018 年第一季度到第一季度的這段期間。21 有點用處。

During that period, we were supporting 70% of annualized growth continually we were adding many, many markets. We were adding many, many inspection centers. We were building the machine of Carvana as we were going and we did not have excess capacity to grow into, and we were able to hold those expenses roughly flat. I think if you look at them, you'll see variation to the tune of a couple of hundred dollars, there's kind of an outlier data point as COVID hit. But in general, they were relatively flat. And then you'll also see that there were even some gains as we headed into the better seasonal parts of the year as well.

在此期間，我們支持了 70% 的年化成長，並不斷增加許多市場。我們增加了很多很多的檢查中心。我們正在建造 Carvana 機器，我們沒有多餘的產能來發展，我們能夠將這些費用保持在大致持平的水平。我想如果你看一下它們，你會發現幾百美元左右的變化，隨著新冠疫情的爆發，存在某種異常數據點。但總體而言，它們相對平坦。然後您還會看到，隨著我們進入一年中更好的季節性部分，甚至還有一些好處。

So I think that's pretty clear evidence that we've done this before. We've supported very high rates of growth, and we've grown in a way that is more difficult because we weren't growing into existing infrastructure. We were building infrastructure as we went. So we don't think that it's obvious that there need to be meaningful expenses or expense increases in these line items as we turn to growth. And overall, we absolutely expect there to be significant leverage. I think that's very clear in our GPUs and very clear in our operational expenses, when you just look at the gap between those 2 things, there's a lot of room for growth to be extremely beneficial financially.

所以我認為這是非常明確的證據，表明我們以前已經這樣做過。我們支持了非常高的成長率，但我們的成長方式更加困難，因為我們沒有發展到現有的基礎設施。我們邊走邊建設基礎建設。因此，我們認為，當我們轉向成長時，這些項目中並不需要明顯的費用或費用增加。總的來說，我們絕對預期會有很大的影響力。我認為這在我們的GPU 中非常明顯，在我們的營運支出中也非常明顯，當你只看這兩件事之間的差距時，你會發現有很大的成長空間，在財務上非常有利。

If that's the case, then I respect the decision to continue focusing on operational efficiency, but you're leaving a lot of opportunity on the table. So why not pivot to growth sooner rather than later?

如果是這樣的話，那麼我尊重繼續專注於營運效率的決定，但你會留下很多機會。那麼為什麼不儘早轉向成長呢？

Sure. I think financially in the near term, that would likely be the right choice. I think the scale of the unit economic benefits that would come from growth, I think that likely would be the right choice over the next couple of quarters. However, kind of long kind of headed into that. I think when you look at it over a longer period of time, there is a fixed cost to reorienting the entire business. I walked you through Project Catapult, which we kicked off 18 months ago and operation 100, which we kicked off approximately 7 months ago. Those are long-term projects with many underlying goals where the entire company is focused on driving different metrics in the right direction. And that focus has been tremendously beneficial, and we believe there are gains yet to be had.

當然。我認為從短期來看，這可能是正確的選擇。我認為成長帶來的單位經濟效益的規模，我認為這可能是未來幾季的正確選擇。然而，這有點漫長。我認為，從較長時期來看，重新調整整個業務是有固定成本的。我向您介紹了我們在 18 個月前啟動的 Project Catapult 和大約 7 個月前啟動的 100 號行動。這些是具有許多基本目標的長期項目，整個公司都致力於將不同的指標推向正確的方向。這種關注是非常有益的，我們相信還有收穫。

And so I think that points us direction of discipline suggest, let's keep getting those gains. I mean, I don't mean to be defensive on this one, but I think if we go back in time, even 9 months ago, I think the average expectation consensus was on the order of $500 million of negative EBITDA this year. What was kind of the expectation that the people had for us. And over the last 2 quarters, it's been positive $300 million. That's obviously a tremendous difference. And I think that demonstrates the kind of value of that discipline of setting clear goals and of marching toward them.

因此，我認為這為我們指明了紀律方向，並建議我們繼續取得這些成果。我的意思是，我並不是要對此進行辯護，但我認為，如果我們回到過去，即使是 9 個月前，我認為今年的平均預期共識是 5 億美元的負 EBITDA。人們對我們有什麼樣的期望？過去 2 個季度的營收為 3 億美元。這顯然是一個巨大的差異。我認為這證明了設定明確目標並朝著目標邁進的紀律的價值。

But again, I think basically on math, I think the answer is clear, we should turn to growth. We just think that on math over a longer period of time, we should harvest the gains that we're in a position to get and then we should turn to growth. And when we do, we'll be even more efficient than we would be today with even lower costs.

但同樣，我認為基本上在數學上，我認為答案很明確，我們應該轉向成長。我們只是認為，在較長一段時間內的數學上，我們應該收穫我們所能獲得的收益，然後我們應該轉向成長。當我們這樣做時，我們將比現在更有效率，同時成本也會更低。

Our next question comes from Ron Josey with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Ron Josey。

I wanted to ask 2, please. Mark, in the presentation of the investor letter, the per unit insights were super helpful. As we think about staying in step 2 or when do we move to step, I wanted to ask just about specifically. I think we saw inboard -- inbound transport costs declined $900 over the last 12 months on a per unit basis. So would love to hear what drove those gains. And how far away do you think we are to getting to that like peak efficiency, maybe not just with just inbound transport cost, but just overall? I assume there's more ways to go, but I would love your thoughts there.

我想問2，拜託。馬克，在投資人信函的介紹中，每單位的見解非常有幫助。當我們考慮留在第 2 步或何時轉向第 2 步時，我想具體詢問一下。我認為我們看到過去 12 個月內每件貨物的入境運輸成本下降了 900 美元。所以很想知道是什麼推動了這些收益。您認為我們距離達到高峰效率還有多遠，也許不只是入境運輸成本，而是整體成本？我認為還有更多的方法可以走，但我很喜歡你的想法。

And then, Ernie, as we think about preparing ourselves for whenever the next step is, same-day delivery is something that's super interesting. Would love to hear just early results for now in, I think, 2 or 3 states and cities, would love to hear any insights on how that might be driving greater conversion rates and really just how the network is positioned to support same-day delivery.

然後，厄尼，當我們考慮為下一步做好準備時，當日送貨是一件非常有趣的事情。我想聽聽目前在 2 或 3 個州和城市的早期結果，很想聽聽有關這如何推動更高轉換率以及網路如何定位以支持當日送達的任何見解。

Sure, Ron. Well, let me start with your first question. So I think what you're referring to is in the last 12 months, we have reduced our reconditioning plus inbound transport costs by about $900. I think that's a very significant win and one of the progress points that we're very excited about when we're thinking about the progress that we're making in Step 2.

當然，羅恩。好吧，讓我從你的第一個問題開始。所以我認為你指的是過去 12 個月裡，我們將翻新加上入境運輸成本減少了約 900 美元。我認為這是一次非常重大的勝利，也是當我們思考第二步中取得的進展時我們感到非常興奮的進步點之一。

I think what were some of the drivers of that? So I think we start focusing on reconditioning. In-sourcing was probably the single biggest driver. So basically taking services that had previously been provided by third parties in the inspection and reconditioning centers and taking them in-house and doing them ourselves. And that obviously saves costs and allow us to have better control of the process. So I think that's been a big win.

我想這背後的驅動因素是什麼？所以我認為我們開始專注於修復。內包可能是最大的推動因素。因此，基本上將以前由第三方在檢查和修復中心提供的服務轉移到內部並自行完成。這顯然可以節省成本，並使我們能夠更好地控制流程。所以我認為這是一個巨大的勝利。

In addition, I think we've gotten better at standardizing processes, making sure we're properly normalized at our staffing levels. We made some big gains in proprietary inspection and reconditioning center software, including fully in-sourcing our inventory management system. I think that's a big win and a big improvement that allows us much better control over the process and allows us to really have, again, clear standards and processes that are executed on every single car that's rolling through the facilities.

此外，我認為我們在標準化流程方面做得更好，確保我們的人員配置水準得到適當的標準化。我們在專有的檢查和修復中心軟體方面取得了一些重大進展，包括完全內包我們的庫存管理系統。我認為這是一個巨大的勝利和一個巨大的改進，它使我們能夠更好地控制流程，並讓我們再次真正擁有明確的標準和流程，並在通過設施的每輛汽車上執行。

We've also made games automating parts procurement. It used to be a highly manual process. and a highly -- more variable process than it is today. And so I think we've made big wins there. in the proprietary software development department. So those are a few of the places where we've made real gains in reconditioning. I would note that we do see opportunities for further gains in those areas that I just pointed to in recon. We don't think we're done. We do see opportunities for further gains in reconditioning cost per unit.

我們也製作了自動化零件採購的遊戲。它曾經是一個高度手動的過程。以及比現在更加多變的過程。所以我認為我們在那裡取得了巨大的勝利。在專有軟體開發部門。這些是我們在修復方面取得實際成果的一些地方。我要指出的是，我們確實看到了我剛才在偵察中指出的那些領域取得進一步進展的機會。我們不認為我們已經完成了。我們確實看到了進一步提高單位翻新成本的機會。

Moving to inbound transport. I think a couple of sources of gains there are getting better at logistics network utilization as well as having lower inbound miles. And so both of those things, I think, have also led to declines in inbound transport costs.

轉向入境運輸。我認為，那裡的幾個收益來源是物流網絡利用率的提高以及入境里程的減少。因此，我認為這兩件事也導致了入境運輸成本的下降。

Now one thing I did want to call out is there's actually two $900 improvements that are of note. I just talked about and I think your question was focused on the $900 gains in retail cost of sales. However, we also have an additional $900 of significant gains in our operational selling, general and administrative expenses. And that's -- we've broken out some detail on that in our shareholder letter as well as the accompanying materials. And so in total, that's $1,800 of total gains in those more variable cost components. If I just say a few words about the gains in that second $900 of cost gains, I think that has also been very broad-based.

現在我確實想指出的一件事是，實際上有兩個 900 美元的改進值得注意。我剛才談到，我認為您的問題集中在零售銷售成本 900 美元的收益上。然而，我們的營運銷售、一般和管理費用還獲得了額外 900 美元的顯著收益。我們已經在股東信函以及隨附資料中詳細說明了這一點。因此，這些變動成本較高的部分總共帶來了 1,800 美元的總收益。如果我只談第二次 900 美元成本收益的收益，我認為這也是非常廣泛的。

So that would include cost improvements, for example, in our customer care centers. It would include cost improvements in our market operations, which is our last mile delivery network. It would include cost gains in our logistics and transportation departments, which house the logistics network that moves cars around for us. And we've made very significant gains in some of those operational areas as well. Those have been driven by process automation, improved staffing and scheduling, better proprietary logistics route management and activity pairing software. We've made some real improvements both in terms of processes and technology that have driven that second $900 of unit economics improvements and that one being since Q4 2022.

因此，這將包括成本改進，例如我們的客戶服務中心的成本改進。這將包括我們的市場運營的成本改進，這是我們最後一英里的交付網路。這將包括我們的物流和運輸部門的成本效益，這些部門擁有為我們運送汽車的物流網絡。我們在其中一些營運領域也取得了非常顯著的成果。這些都是由流程自動化、改進的人員配備和調度、更好的專有物流路線管理和活動配對軟體所推動的。我們在流程和技術方面做出了一些真正的改進，推動了自 2022 年第四季以來第二次 900 美元的單位經濟效益改進。

So I think, obviously, we're very excited about all that. $1,800 in reductions on a per unit basis and the more variable components of the cost structure. I think it's something we feel really great about. And it's part of the reason that we're so excited about what we're doing here in Step 2 before we transition to take advantage of our excess capacity and return to profitable growth.

所以我認為，顯然我們對這一切感到非常興奮。每單位成本結構的變動部分減少 1,800 美元。我認為這是我們感覺非常好的事情。這也是我們對第二步所做的事情感到如此興奮的部分原因，然後我們過渡到利用過剩產能並恢復獲利成長。

Yes. And then I'm going to jump on that for a second as well before heading to same-day delivery. What I would also say is, those gains are very high-quality gains. Those aren't cutting corner gains. During this period, we've seen warranty claims, for example, go down. So we've seen frequency of warranty claims go down while we've been driving down reconditioning expenses. A lot of the cost savings that Mark is talking about are actually making the customer experience better. The scheduling benefits in logistics means that we're delivering cars faster. We have fewer pushes when customers are calling advocates, calls per sale are down approximately 1/3 year-over-year.

是的。然後，在進行當日送達之前，我也會先討論一下這一點。我還要說的是，這些收穫都是非常高品質的收穫。這些並不是削減收益。例如，在此期間，我們發現保固索賠有所下降。因此，在我們降低整修費用的同時，我們發現保固索賠的頻率有所下降。馬克所說的許多成本節省實際上是在改善客戶體驗。物流調度優勢意味著我們可以更快地交付汽車。當客戶打電話給倡導者時，我們的推動次數減少了，每次銷售的電話數量比去年同期下降了約 1/3。

We've seen calls per advocate -- or sorry, sales per advocate have doubled year-over-year. We're seeing benefits across the board in title and registration. We've seen very significant change as well, 75% increase in efficiency per hour of work in title registration, year-over-year 15% increase quarter-over-quarter. So a lot of these things are also just making the customer experience better. And during that period, we've seen NPS go up as a result.

我們已經看到每位倡導者的電話數量——或者抱歉，每位倡導者的銷售額同比增長了一倍。我們在所有權和註冊方面看到了全面的好處。我們也看到了非常顯著的變化，產權登記每小時的工作效率提高了 75%，比去年同期提高了 15%。因此，很多這些事情也只是讓客戶體驗變得更好。在此期間，我們看到 NPS 隨之上升。

So I think these are deep fundamental real gains. They're not trade-off gains, and so we're extremely excited about them.

所以我認為這些都是深刻的根本性的實際收益。它們不是權衡收益，因此我們對此感到非常興奮。

Heading to same-day delivery, I think same-day delivery is a very good example of one of these projects internally that we've been working on that is sort of a little fuzzy in terms of what is the ultimate goal, is it Step 2 or Step 3. And clearly, it can play a role in both. The way that we've been executing that to date, first of all, as you said, it's in a small subset of markets. So I don't want to get everyone too, too excited on this one just yet. The way we've been executing it to date. More been aimed at efficiency gains. There are times when customers change their delivery date or they cancel a spot that they've previously booked, and we're not able to book that for another customer. By adding same-day delivery, we can kind of fill in those empty slots. And so we can offer faster delivery to our customers, and we also can do it more efficiently because we fill in time that would have otherwise been wasted.

談到當日交付，我認為當日交付是我們一直在內部開展的這些項目之一的一個很好的例子，但就最終目標而言有點模糊，是嗎？2 或步驟3. 顯然，它可以在兩者中發揮作用。首先，正如您所說，我們迄今為止執行的方式是在一小部分市場中。所以我不想讓每個人都對這個太興奮。迄今為止我們執行它的方式。更多的目標是提高效率。有時，客戶會更改交貨日期或取消先前預訂的地點，而我們無法為其他客戶預訂該地點。透過添加當日送達，我們可以填補這些空缺。因此，我們可以為客戶提供更快的交付，而且我們也可以更有效率地完成交付，因為我們填補了本來會被浪費的時間。

And so that's generally how we've rolled that out. We're also just beginning to test same-day purchasing from customers as well, where they can go onto our website, they can get a value for their car, they can bring the car to us. We've actually had customers complete that process in -- on the order of 1 hour and from kind of being on website to getting a check from us as they drop off their car and one of our vending machines. So we are working on those things. I think those are exciting things. Today, they're aimed at efficiency tomorrow, they certainly could be aimed at growth. In order to do that, I think it would just have some implications for our staffing models. I think whenever you're trying to offer very rapid delivery times, the fundamental trade-off there is always just between sort of efficiency and kind of excess capacity and time. But we don't expect those costs to be super high, but they will require focus, and we'll decide how to use those fundamental gains as we head into Step 3.

這就是我們通常推出的方式。我們也剛開始測試客戶的當日購買，他們可以訪問我們的網站，他們可以獲得他們的汽車的價值，他們可以將汽車帶到我們這裡。事實上，我們已經讓客戶在大約 1 小時內完成了這個過程，從登入網站到在他們還車和我們的一台自動販賣機時收到我們的支票。所以我們正在研究這些事情。我認為這些都是令人興奮的事情。今天，他們的目標是效率，明天，他們當然可以以成長為目標。為了做到這一點，我認為這只會對我們的人員配置模式產生一些影響。我認為，每當你試圖提供非常快速的交貨時間時，基本的權衡總是在效率與過剩產能和時間之間。但我們預計這些成本不會非常高，但需要重點關注，並且在進入第三步時我們將決定如何利用這些基本收益。

The next question comes from Rajat Gupta with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Rajat Gupta。

Great. The third quarter units saw a bigger pickup, I guess, what you had guided to, what we were expecting. It seems it was a little better than the normal seasonality, the industry experiences. So curious like what drove the pickup there? Was it just aided by the industry or anything you were experimenting internally as you think about moving from Step 2 to Step 3? And why is that -- and why is that reversing here in the fourth quarter? Is it again like a refocus on the operations? Or is it just more purely just industry pressures that you're facing? And I have a quick follow-up.

偉大的。我想，第三季的單位出現了更大的回升，正如您所指導的，也是我們所期望的。根據行業經驗，這似乎比正常的季節性要好一些。很好奇是什麼驅動了皮卡到那裡？當您考慮從第 2 步轉向第 3 步時，這只是行業的幫助還是您在內部進行的任何實驗的幫助？為什麼會出現這種情況——為什麼這種情況在第四季出現逆轉？是否再次重新關注營運？或者您面臨的只是更純粹的行業壓力？我有一個快速的跟進。

Sure. I think the simplest way to think about Step 2 is that during Step 2, we're effectively setting up the company to be kind of neutral to industry volume changes, whether that's seasonality or otherwise. And so I think Q3 was great from a unit perspective. I think that was largely driven by seasonality. I don't think there was a ton of specific stuff that we were doing that was aimed at growth in the quarter. There may have been some benefits from some of the other projects we had, but there were gains that were aimed at growth.

當然。我認為思考第二步的最簡單方法是，在第二步中，我們有效地將公司設定為對行業數量變化保持中立，無論是季節性變化還是其他變化。因此，我認為從單位角度來看，第三季非常棒。我認為這主要是由季節性驅動的。我不認為我們正在做大量旨在實現本季成長的具體事情。我們的其他一些項目可能帶來了一些好處，但有些收穫是為了成長。

I think heading into Q4, we again expect to kind of roughly move with the industry because we are remaining in Step 2, and we're keeping the settings of the business fairly neutral. So I think normally, there's a seasonal decrease in Q4. We expect that to occur. Again, I think most importantly, kind of the unit range that we expect is very much in line with what we've seen over the last several quarters, and we think that, that's a reasonable unit range for us to continue to make gains as we power through Step 2 and get ready for Step 3.

我認為進入第四季度，我們再次預計會與行業大致同步，因為我們仍處於第二步，並且我們保持業務設置相當中立。所以我認為通常情況下，第四季會出現季節性下降。我們預計這種情況會發生。再說一次，我認為最重要的是，我們預期的單位範圍與我們過去幾個季度所看到的非常一致，而且我們認為，這是一個合理的單位範圍，可以讓我們繼續獲得收益我們完成第2步並為第3 步做好準備。

Understood. That's helpful. And just a quick 1 on just the financing and the ABS markets. We have seen like spreads widen a bit. benchmark rates have gone up. How does that change your thinking around monetization in the fourth quarter? I believe you still have a bit of a backlog from earlier this year that needs to be cleared. You talked about holding on to more residuals going forward. I mean is that something we should expect to start seeing this quarter already? And just maybe like just broader thoughts on how we should think about the finance or other GPU from 3Q to 4Q.

明白了。這很有幫助。簡單介紹一下融資和 ABS 市場。我們看到利差有所擴大。基準利率有所上升。這如何改變您對第四季貨幣化的看法？我相信今年早些時候你們還有一些積壓的訂單需要清理。您談到了未來保留更多剩餘資產。我的意思是，我們應該期望在本季就開始看到這種情況嗎？也許就像我們應該如何思考第三季到第四季的金融或其他 GPU 的更廣泛的想法一樣。

Sure. I think there's certainly all the changes you pointed to are reasonable. There's been some kind of choppiness, I think, across all financial markets over the last many months. And I think that, that's shown up in benchmarks, showing up in spreads. As we have in the past, we would expect others to be passing that on to consumers, and we would expect to do the same.

當然。我認為你指出的所有改變當然都是合理的。我認為，過去幾個月所有金融市場都出現了某種波動。我認為，這體現在基準、利差。正如我們過去所做的那樣，我們希望其他人能夠將這一點傳遞給消費者，我們也希望這樣做。

So generally speaking, I don't think that we have tremendously different expectations there. I think in terms of our general monetization plan, I think that first order, our plans remain the same. The plan that we've had in place has been very good for a very long period of time. Even in this last quarter, we had 4 securitizations that we were pretty happy with and we still have room to improve our effective cost of funds, those securitizations. And I think if we were kind of achieving industry best cost of funds there, there would be another kind of area where we would have significant improvements in our unit economics. And over time, we absolutely expect that to be the case.

所以總的來說，我認為我們的期望沒有很大不同。我認為就我們的整體貨幣化計劃而言，我認為首先，我們的計劃保持不變。我們制定的計劃在很長一段時間內一直非常好。即使在最後一個季度，我們也有 4 項證券化，我們對此非常滿意，而且我們仍然有空間改善我們的有效資金成本，即這些證券化。我認為，如果我們能夠在那裡實現行業最佳資金成本，那麼我們的單位經濟效益將會在另一個領域得到顯著改善。隨著時間的推移，我們絕對希望情況會如此。

I think we also are clearly in a different capital position than we've been in quite a while. Most importantly, the improvement in that capital position is led by the gains that we're seeing across the business that led to $300 million of the EBITDA over the last 2 quarters. And then we're in a good liquidity position with the business operating the way that it is. So I think that we are now communicating that we will be more open to maintaining residuals in the future. We'll see exactly what form that takes over time. I think there are lots of forms that can take, but we view that as an opportunity as well.

我認為我們的資本狀況顯然也與相當長一段時間以來不同。最重要的是，資本狀況的改善是由我們在整個業務中看到的收益所帶動的，這些收益在過去兩個季度帶來了 3 億美元的 EBITDA。然後我們就處於良好的流動性狀況，業務按現狀運作。所以我認為我們現在正在溝通，我們將在未來對維持殘差持更開放的態度。隨著時間的推移，我們將會看到具體的形式。我認為可以採取多種形式，但我們也認為這是一個機會。

In general, they are very high-quality assets, these auto loans we generate. And the residuals offer pretty significant returns. They are very robust to increases in expected losses. And I think it's a tried and true strategy for many of the industry to maintain those residuals and get paid pretty handsomely for it. So we think that's an interesting opportunity, we will start to explore we would like to maintain the right to do that flexibly over time. So -- but that may be a change.

總的來說，我們產生的這些汽車貸款都是非常優質的資產。殘差提供了相當可觀的回報。它們對預期損失的增加非常穩健。我認為，對於許多行業來說，這是一個經過考驗的真實策略，可以維持這些剩餘資金並為此獲得相當豐厚的報酬。所以我們認為這是一個有趣的機會，我們將開始探索我們希望隨著時間的推移保持靈活地這樣做的權利。所以——但這可能是個改變。

Our next question comes from Chris Bottiglieri with BNP Paribas.

我們的下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的 Chris Bottiglieri。

I had a question. So I just want to -- kind of want to clarify the new exposure disclosure on the other overhead expense. So your supplemental deck shows this $141 million, excluding D&A of $45 million. Is this largely the same bucket expenses as the $172 million other expenses in the core P&L.? And I guess, the way you're framing it, it sounds like the vast majority of this $141 million plus the D&A are fixed, a unique growth to scale. Is that the correct -- is that the correct way to frame it? Like how much of that is actually fixed versus variable? Because when I look at the way you define other expenses in the Q and just commentary you had in the past, it's IT, it's corporate occupancy, it's professional services, it's insurance, it's limited warranty it's credit losses, customer swag, like some of that the stuff sounds variable, and some of it sounds like you could cut it in your structure. So kind of trying to make sense of how you're thinking about that bucket from a fixed versus variable perspective going forward?

我有一個問題。所以我只是想澄清有關其他管理費用的新風險揭露。所以你的補充牌顯示這 1.41 億美元，不包括 4500 萬美元的 D&A。這與核心損益表中 1.72 億美元的其他費用大致相同嗎？我想，按照你的框架方式，聽起來這 1.41 億美元加上 D&A 中的絕大多數都是固定的，這是一種獨特的規模增長。這是正確的——這是構建它的正確方式嗎？例如其中有多少實際上是固定的，而不是可變的？因為當我看看你在Q 中定義其他費用的方式以及你過去的評論時，它是IT，它是公司佔用，它是專業服務，它是保險，它是有限保修，它是信用損失，客戶贈品，就像一些這些東西聽起來是可變的，其中一些聽起來像是你可以在你的結構中削減它。那麼，你是否想從固定與可變的角度來理解你如何看待這個桶子？

Sure, I'll take that one. So I think to hit the question very simply, the overhead expenses of $141 million are not the same as other SG&A expenses that we've historically reported. They are -- that new slide on overhead expenses per unit and also in dollar terms is intended to capture the more fixed components of both compensation and benefits as well as the more fixed components of other SG&A expenses. And so just to give some sense of what that is in compensation and benefits, that would be your corporate teams, accounting, legal, some of the more general and administrative oriented corporate teams. It would also be your technology teams.

當然，我會接受那個。因此，我認為簡單地回答這個問題，1.41 億美元的管理費用與我們歷史上報告的其他 SG&A 費用不同。它們是——每單位管理費用以及以美元計算的新幻燈片旨在捕捉薪資和福利中更固定的組成部分，以及其他SG&A費用中更固定的組成部分。因此，為了讓大家了解薪資和福利的內容，這將是您的公司團隊、會計、法律、一些更一般和以行政為導向的公司團隊。這也將是您的技術團隊。

So think their product, engineering, data science, those compensation and benefits expenses would be included in that new overhead slide that we provided. When you move to the other SG&A component, some of the expenses that underlie our historical other SG&A expense that would then be included in this new overhead expense measure would include facilities expenses. It would include some technology expenses and then it would also include some non-payroll other general and administrative expenses. And so that's just to give a sense. And most importantly, with respect to the setup of your question, clarify that, that is not -- the new overhead expense measure is not a parallel or a proxy for that other SG&A.

因此，認為他們的產品、工程、數據科學、這些補償和福利費用將包含在我們提供的新的管理費用幻燈片中。當您轉向其他 SG&A 組成部分時，我們歷史上其他 SG&A 費用的一些費用將包含在新的間接費用計量中，其中包括設施費用。它包括一些技術費用，然後還包括一些非工資的其他一般和管理費用。這只是為了給人一種感覺。最重要的是，關於你的問題的設置，請澄清這一點——新的間接費用衡量標準不是其他 SG&A 的平行或替代。

Now in terms of the question, what component of overhead expenses are fixed and what component are variable? So those expenses, we view as primarily fixed. There are some semi-variable components, for example, a few corporate apartments may vary somewhat with units, certain technology expenses may vary somewhat with units. But for the most part, those expenses are heavily fixed and we think we have the ability to lever those expenses very significantly over time. And just to give a little bit more color on that last point, one of the reasons why we are really excited about the leverage opportunity that we see in front of us is the -- our existing capacity utilization. And so as you probably saw it in the shareholder letter or the accompanying materials, we have built and currently own significantly more capacity, whether it's in our inspection and reconditioning centers or our logistics network.

現在的問題是，管理費用的哪些部分是固定的，哪些部分是可變的？因此，我們認為這些費用基本上是固定的。有一些半可變的組成部分，例如，一些企業公寓可能會因單位而有所不同，某些技術費用可能會因單位而有所不同。但在大多數情況下，這些費用是固定的，我們認為隨著時間的推移，我們有能力極大地利用這些費用。為了讓最後一點更加生動，我們對眼前的槓桿機會感到非常興奮的原因之一是我們現有的產能利用率。正如您可能在股東信函或隨附資料中看到的那樣，我們已經建立並目前擁有更多的產能，無論是在我們的檢查和翻新中心還是在我們的物流網絡中。

Even our corporate office not even corporate but more sort of customer care center office space. We own significantly more capacity than we are utilizing today. We think that gives us an opportunity to increase retail unit volume significantly while levering those overhead expenses meaningfully in the process.

甚至我們的公司辦公室也不是公司的，而是更像客戶服務中心的辦公空間。我們擁有的產能比我們今天使用的產能多得多。我們認為，這使我們有機會大幅增加零售單位銷售量，同時在過程中有效地利用這些管理費用。

Got you. Okay. That's helpful. So it sounds like it's very much growth dependent. I mean kind of leasing like a related follow-up. But I know you're not willing to give guidance at this point for growth. But from our shoes, how do we think about growth? I mean the market is a little bit depressed, call it, 10, 12 points. I think there's probably some supply scarcity that's cause you to lose market share that gets better over the next 2, 3, 4 years. But beyond that, like what are the -- you have your tangible growth drivers like prime Alice delivery, but how do you get to this 40%, 50% to 200% unit growth that you need to lever these fixed costs? Like what gets you comfortable that you get there? And from our shoes, like how do we model that? Like what does that mean for an investor?

明白你了。好的。這很有幫助。所以聽起來它非常依賴成長。我的意思是類似相關後續行動的租賃。但我知道您此時不願意提供成長指導。但從我們的鞋子來看，我們如何看待成長？我的意思是市場有點低迷，稱之為 10、12 點。我認為可能存在一些供應短缺，導致您失去市場份額，而這些份額在未來 2、3、4 年會變得更好。但除此之外，您擁有實際的成長動力，例如 Prime Alice 交付，但如何實現槓桿這些固定成本所需的 40%、50% 到 200% 的單位成長？例如是什麼讓你到達那裡感到舒服？從我們的鞋子來看，我們如何建模？這對投資者意味著什麼？

So let me say that one. Let me start with -- I mean, I think until we really start to grow, these are all conceptual arguments, and I won't have to decide kind of what they believe and what their expectation is, but I'll start with ours. We expect to sell millions of cars. That is our -- that has been our goal since the beginning, that is our absolute expectation and I think a question to ask across time is what has really changed versus the first 8 years of our life where we grew very, very quickly because I think that it's as hard to answer that question as it is or harder to answer that question than it is to answer how are we going to grow from here.

那我就來說說這一點吧。讓我開始——我的意思是，我認為在我們真正開始成長之前，這些都是概念性的爭論，我不必決定他們相信什麼和他們的期望是什麼，但我將從我們的開始。我們預計將銷售數百萬輛汽車。這是我們的——從一開始就是我們的目標，這是我們的絕對期望，我認為隨著時間的推移，要問的一個問題是，與我們生命的前八年相比，我們成長得非常非常快，因為我​​認為回答這個問題和回答這個問題一樣困難，或者比回答我們如何從現在開始成長更難。

During the early parts of our life, we grew at triple-digit rates for a very long time. And that took many forms. It took -- but I think the most exciting forms were basically a migration of people's preferences toward e-commerce. It was a building of the Carvana brand. It was a positive feedback inherent in our business model. We are a business model that gets better as it gets bigger. And so it is true that when we grow inventory, selection goes up, conversion goes up. When conversion goes up, your advertising costs go down. You spend more on advertising, you sell more cars. That allows you to carry more inventory. And there's several other examples of that as well. So I think those persistent drivers of growth led us to grow by multiples over an 8-year period of time.

在我們生命的早期階段，我們在很長一段時間內以三位數的速度成長。這有多種形式。它花了——但我認為最令人興奮的形式基本上是人們對電子商務的偏好的遷移。這是Carvana品牌的建築。這是我們商業模式中固有的正面回饋。我們的商業模式隨著規模的擴大而變得更好。因此，確實，當我們增加庫存時，選擇就會增加，轉換率也會增加。當轉換率上升時，您的廣告費用就會下降。你花更多的錢在廣告上，你就能賣出更多的汽車。這使您可以攜帶更多庫存。還有其他幾個例子。因此，我認為這些持久的成長動力使我們在 8 年內實現了數倍增長。

And then I think over the last 1.5 years, -- we've clearly been in a highly distorted environment. And I think that makes it a little bit harder to kind of read through and take the current trend lines and figure out exactly how to extend them. But we don't think anything fundamental has changed. And we think that we put a lot of pressure on ourselves over the last 18 months as we focused on getting more efficient and -- just to use those same terms, the primary form that's taken is we've trump our inventory by 50%, meaning that our selection to customers has gone down and we pulled back on marketing spend by 50%. And those things have fed back negatively.

然後我認為在過去 1.5 年裡，我們顯然處於一個高度扭曲的環境中。我認為這使得通讀並掌握當前趨勢線並弄清楚如何擴展它們變得有點困難。但我們認為沒有任何根本性的改變。我們認為，在過去18 個月裡，我們給自己施加了很大的壓力，因為我們專注於提高效率，並且——用同樣的術語來說，我們所採用的主要形式是我們的庫存量超出了50%，這意味著我們對客戶的選擇減少了，行銷支出也減少了 50%。這些事情產生了負面回饋。

So I think when it's time to restart the engine, we expect that our offering will be received the same way that it was before. We expect the positive feedback will once again show up. And we expect some of those things to lead to us selling millions of cars again in the future. I think we've spoken in the past about the distortions of the market that we're in today. And I think that, that can sound a bit conceptual and kind of unclear. But I think our statistic that I think is useful to think about as it relates to how have things changed over the last 18 months and is last 18 months, really the time frame we should be looking at to extrapolate the long-term potential of Carvana we should we be looking at the earlier periods.

因此，我認為當需要重新啟動引擎時，我們希望我們的產品能像以前一樣被接受。我們預計正面的回饋將再次出現。我們預計其中一些事情將導致我們在未來再次銷售數百萬輛汽車。我想我們過去已經談到過我們今天所處的市場的扭曲。我認為，這聽起來有點概念化並且有點不清楚。但我認為我們的統計數據值得思考，因為它與過去 18 個月內情況的變化以及過去 18 個月的情況有關，這確實是我們應該考慮的時間範圍，以推斷 Carvana 的長期潛力我們應該關注早期的情況。

Pre-pandemic, the average car that we sold was approximately a 3-year-old car, and that car was for sale for approximately $19,500. More recently, the average car that we've sold has been 5.7 years old, and it's been sold for $25,000. That's a dramatically different situation. And I think there's many, many reasons for that. One is there was obviously a huge supply chain disruption. Most fundamental is there was a huge supply chain disruption that led to car prices going up relative to other goods. It remains the case today that for consumers buying cars, they're spending approximately 50% more per month by the same car than they were pre-pandemic. They're spending on the order of 10% more on everything else they're buying. So cars have gotten relatively less affordable and that, of course, has a very large impact. Our expectation would be that at some point in the not too in future, as supply chains get resolved, cars will probably have a similar cost relative to other goods as they had for a very long period of time before. And that's a very big difference that we would expect.

在大流行之前，我們銷售的汽車平均約為 3 年車齡，該車的售價約為 19,500 美元。最近，我們銷售的汽車平均車齡為 5.7 年，售價為 25,000 美元。這是一個截然不同的情況。我認為這有很多很多的原因。一是供應鏈顯然出現了巨大的中斷。最根本的是，供應鏈發生了巨大的中斷，導致汽車價格相對於其他商品上漲。今天的情況仍然是，對於購買汽車的消費者來說，他們每月在同一輛車上的花費比疫情大流行前增加了約 50%。他們在購買的其他商品上的花費增加了 10% 左右。因此，汽車的價格相對較低，這當然會產生很大的影響。我們的預期是，在不久的將來的某個時刻，隨著供應鏈得到解決，汽車相對於其他商品的成本可能會與之前很長一段時間相似。這是我們所期望的一個非常大的差異。

I think it's also useful to note that one of the other reasons why the average car that we're selling today is 5.7 years old versus 3 years old, is because an entire portion of supply that we used to have ready access to, which was maybe 2 portions of supply, off-lease and off rental that we used to have ready access to have largely evaporated because of the distortions that are driven by the price increases over the last 1.5 years, give or take. And the reason for that is that all the cars that are coming back off lease today, those were leases that roughly, if we assume the average lease is 36 months, there were leases that were written 3 years ago. Three years ago, car prices were in a completely different spot. And so the expected value of cars being returned was in a completely different spot. And as those cars are being returned today, every dealer where those cars are landing is very smartly picking those cars up and benefiting handsomely to the tune of thousands of dollars per unit from all those cars that are showing up on their lot.

我認為值得注意的是，我們今天銷售的汽車平均車齡為 5.7 年而不是 3 年的其他原因之一是因為我們過去可以隨時獲得的全部供應量，即由於過去1.5 年價格上漲造成的扭曲，我們過去可以隨時獲得的供應（租約到期和租金到期）的兩部分可能已經基本上消失了。原因是，今天收回租賃的所有汽車，如果我們假設平均租賃期為 36 個月，那麼這些租賃大約是 3 年前簽訂的。三年前，汽車價格處於完全不同的水平。因此，退回汽車的預期價值處於完全不同的位置。當這些汽車今天被歸還時，這些汽車著陸的每個經銷商都非常聰明地挑選這些汽車，並從所有出現在他們的停車場上的所有汽車中獲得每輛數千美元的豐厚收益。

And so basically, off these cars are just not flowing through auction today. And because the OEMs have been constrained, there are very few rental cars that have been flowing through auction today. So those are big, big distortions that lead to a meaningful change in the portion of the market that we are accessing. But I don't think that there are strong arguments that we should expect that to persist over any meaningful period of time. And I think there have already been early signs of some normalization. We've seen depreciation pick up a little bit more recently. Would love to see that continue. I think there is nothing that will lead to the normalization of the market more quickly than car prices coming back into line with where they historically were or even close to where they historically were.

所以基本上，這些車今天不會參加拍賣。而且由於整車廠受到限制，目前流向拍賣的租賃車非常少。因此，這些都是巨大的扭曲，導致我們正在進入的市場部分發生有意義的變化。但我認為沒有強有力的論點表明我們應該期望這種情況會持續一段有意義的時間。我認為已經出現了一些正常化的早期跡象。我們最近看到貶值有所上升。希望看到這種情況繼續下去。我認為沒有什麼比汽車價格回到歷史水準甚至接近歷史水準更能更快導致市場正常化的了。

And so I think we very much look forward to that. But as those distortions unwind, I think you'll more likely scenario or at least our belief and everyone can make up their own mind is that we're back in the world than we were for 8 years before -- and in that world, we have an offering customers love. We have a highly differentiated model. We have a ton of infrastructure that we can grow into. We have a business that gets better as it gets bigger. We have a team that is hustling fast and it's always hustled fast, and it's changed the direction of that hustle over the last 18 months, but is ready to change it back, and we're going to go hit our goals. So I think when we look forward. We don't know exactly what the growth rates are going to be. We're not ready yet to provide that. I think it's going to depend on all sorts of factors, macro factors, industry factors, our own execution. But we do expect it to be considerable, and our expectations for the future are absolutely unchanged versus what they were before.

所以我認為我們非常期待這一點。但隨著這些扭曲的消除，我認為你更有可能出現這樣的情況，或者至少是我們的信念，每個人都可以下定決心，我們又回到了八年前的世界——在那個世界，我們提供顧客喜愛的產品。我們有一個高度差異化的模型。我們擁有大量可以發展的基礎設施。我們的業務隨著規模的擴大而變得更好。我們有一支快速忙碌的團隊，而且總是快速忙碌，在過去 18 個月裡，它改變了這種忙碌的方向，但已經準備好將其改變回來，我們將繼續實現我們的目標。所以我想當我們展望未來時。我們並不確切知道成長率是多少。我們還沒有準備好提供這一點。我認為這取決於各種因素，宏觀因素、行業因素、我們自己的執行力。但我們確實預計它會相當大，而且我們對未來的期望與以前相比絕對沒有變化。

The next question comes from Michael Montani with Evercore ISI.

下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Michael Montani。

Just wanted to ask if I could, if you could discuss a little bit what you saw in terms of the wholesale market, both with respect to volumes, but then also, I think, some of the relatively wide spreads between wholesale and retail that you referenced and there's any update into October on that front.

只是想問我是否可以，您是否可以討論一下您在批發市場方面看到的情況，無論是在數量方面，還是我認為，您在批發和零售之間的一些相對較大的價差引用了，十月在這方面有任何更新。

Right. I could take that one. So I do think we saw an increase in wholesale market depreciation in Q3 relative to what we were seeing in Q2. I do think the way that flows through our business, it certainly impacts wholesale GPU, where the cars that we're buying from customers that are wholesale eligible, experience a little bit more depreciation, that tends to push on margins and then that can also flow through to volume if we adjust in order to take into consideration updated depreciation expectations.

正確的。我可以接受那個。因此，我確實認為，與第二季相比，第三季批發市場貶值增加。我確實認為我們業務的流動方式肯定會影響批發GPU，我們從符合批發資格的客戶那裡購買的汽車會經歷更多的折舊，這往往會推高利潤率，然後也可能如果我們進行調整以考慮更新的折舊預期，那麼流量就會流向成交量。

And so I would say that's probably -- that's the pattern that we saw in Q3 and then the most important impact that it had on our business. I think if you move to the retail market, I guess I would also say the retail depreciation that we saw in Q3 -- based on our data, it was actually the highest level of retail depreciation that we've seen in the third quarter going back at least through 2018. So it really was a somewhat unusual quarter for retail depreciation. And so that definitely had an impact on our retail GPU.

所以我想說，這可能是我們在第三季看到的模式，也是它對我們業務的最重要的影響。我想如果你轉向零售市場，我想我還會說我們在第三季度看到的零售折舊——根據我們的數據，這實際上是我們在第三季度看到的最高零售折舊水準至少到2018年為止都是這樣。因此，對於零售折舊來說，這確實是一個有點不尋常的季度。所以這肯定對我們的零售 GPU 產生了影響。

I think we feel particularly pleased with our retail GPU in light of the fact that we saw many year highs in retail depreciation in the quarter. And so that was a -- just to add a little bit more color. Another dynamic that we saw in Q3 was elevated retail depreciation in addition to elevated wholesale depreciation.

我認為我們對我們的零售 GPU 感到特別滿意，因為我們在本季看到了零售折舊的多年高點。所以這只是為了增加一點色彩。我們在第三季看到的另一個動態是，除了批發折舊上升之外，零售折舊也上升。

That's great. And just a follow-up on some of the commentary about focusing on enhancing levels of profitability. How -- I guess, how urgent or how much opportunity do you see potentially, Mark, kind of over the next 2 years to potentially start eating into the debt stack to avoid some of the higher interest payments a couple of years out?

那太棒了。這只是一些關於專注於提高盈利水平的評論的後續。我想，馬克，你認為在未來兩年內，你認為潛在的緊迫性或機會有多大，可能會開始蠶食債務堆棧，以避免幾年後支付更高的利息？

So I think our most important priority, and this has been the way we thought about our most important priorities for many years running now is improving the operations of the business. And obviously, we've made tremendous gains there. As we pointed out, the last couple of quarters, generated over $300 million of adjusted EBITDA, of which on the order of $100 million was onetime items, but that still leads to a very significant generation of adjusted EBITDA over just the last couple of quarters with, we believe opportunities for further improvement in unit economics as we continue on with our Step 2 initiatives.

因此，我認為我們最重要的優先事項，也是我們多年來思考最重要優先事項的方式，是改善業務運作。顯然，我們在那裡取得了巨大的成果。正如我們所指出的，過去幾季產生了超過3 億美元的調整後EBITDA，其中約1 億美元是一次性項目，但這仍然導致僅在過去幾個季度就產生了非常顯著的調整後EBITDA因此，我們相信，隨著我們繼續實施第二步舉措，單位經濟效益有進一步改善的機會。

And so I think the I think our focus is going to be on continuing to improve the fundamental strength of the business, continue to make progress on unit economics in Step 2. And then when it's time to return to Step 3, taking advantage of our significant excess capacity to efficiently grow while also significantly levering overhead expenses. And we believe that combination leads to growth -- being profitable growth that I think we're very excited about.

因此，我認為我們的重點將是繼續提高業務的基本實力，繼續在第 2 步中在單位經濟效益方面取得進展。然後，當需要返回第 3 步時，利用我們的優勢產能過剩，以實現有效成長，同時也大幅槓桿化管理費用。我們相信，合併會帶來成長——我認為我們對此感到非常興奮的獲利成長。

Our next question comes from Daniel Imbro with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自丹尼爾·因布羅和史蒂芬斯。

Maybe wanted to ask 2 follow-ups on inventory. Maybe first just on inventory efficiencies. So retail GPU, I guess, partially is benefiting from just carrying fewer callers having less depreciation. Do you think Carvana can keep this near 66 days of inventory as we return to growth? Like have we learned to be more efficient with days on hand or will we need to build that inventory back before we can kind of return to that unit growth?

也許想問 2 個庫存後續問題。也許首先只是庫存效率。因此，我認為零售 GPU 部分受益於更少的呼叫者和更少的折舊。您認為當我們恢復成長時，Carvana 能否保持近 66 天的庫存？例如我們是否學會如何提高現有庫存的效率，還是我們需要重新建立庫存才能恢復單位成長？

So I would offer a couple of perspectives on that. One, I think during some very significant growth years prior to the pandemic, we operated in low to mid-60s, average day sales in some quarters even ticked down to the high 50s. So I think we feel very comfortable operating in this range of average days of sale and indeed have done so for many years, while executing very high growth rates. So I think that would be, yes, the most important point on that particular question.

所以我想就此提供一些觀點。第一，我認為在大流行之前的一些非常顯著的成長年份中，我們的營運水準為 60 多歲，某些季度的平均日銷售額甚至下降到 50 多歲。因此，我認為我們在這個平均銷售天數範圍內運作感到非常舒服，並且確實已經這樣做了很多年，同時實現了非常高的成長率。所以我認為，是的，這將是這個特定問題上最重要的一點。

Got it. Okay. And then maybe a follow-up on inventory. As we think about off-lease availability, Ernie, you just talked about returning supply. But if the average lease is 36 months, we're about to come up on a period where fewer units were sold and fewer leases were generated. And so if we don't get back to pre-pandemic off lease for a couple of years, I guess, what other sources can you lean into to support that growth?

知道了。好的。然後也許是庫存的後續行動。當我們考慮租約結束時的可用性時，厄尼，您剛剛談到了返還供應的問題。但如果平均租約為 36 個月，我們將面臨一個售出單位數量減少、產生的租約減少的時期。因此，如果我們在幾年內沒有恢復到疫情前的租約，我想，您還可以依靠哪些其他來源來支持這種成長？

Sure. So yes. So first of all, I think you're right. So it's still like set the table, I think lease rates were relatively consistent through at least the beginning of '21. And then I think as you headed through '21, lease rates dropped to about half what they were prior as a percentage of new car sales by the end of '21. And so as we head into '24, the number of cars coming off, lease will decrease. That is correct.

當然。所以是的。所以首先，我認為你是對的。所以這仍然是一種設定，我認為租賃率至少在 21 年初是相對穩定的。然後我認為，隨著 21 世紀的到來，租賃率在 21 世紀末佔新車銷售的百分比下降到之前的一半左右。因此，當我們進入 24 世紀時，淘汰和租賃的汽車數量將會減少。那是對的。

We view that first and foremost as a positive. And the reason is because those off-lease cars have not been making it to us. So first order, the effective way to think about our access to off-lease cars over the last 1.5 years has been that it has been roughly 0. And so we have not benefited from the existence of those cars coming off lease and I think as we head to a comp period -- as we head into '21, another thing that happens kind of in another dimension is we start to comp over periods where car prices were higher. So the expected value of those cars were higher. And so the expected residual value of those cars were higher, and therefore, they are kind of less valuable cars relative to expectations that are showing up on dealers' lots, and therefore, most likely less likely to just be held by dealers. And so they will probably start to flow downstream to us.

我們認為這首先是積極的。原因是那些租賃結束的汽車還沒有交付給我們。因此，首先，考慮我們在過去 1.5 年中獲得停止租賃汽車的情況的有效方法是，它大約是 0。因此，我們並沒有從這些停止租賃汽車的存在中受益，我認為我們進入了比較期— —當我們進入21世紀時，在另一個維度發生的另一件事是我們開始在汽車價格較高的時期進行比較。所以這些車的預期價值更高。因此，這些汽車的預期剩餘價值較高，因此，相對於經銷商地塊上出現的預期，它們的價值較低，因此，很可能不太可能只由經銷商持有。因此它們可能會開始向下游流向我們。

So I think we view that as a definite positive because it gives us access to additional inventory. We also think that, that same dynamic has probably been something of a competitive headwind for us over time because there's been a single channel of cars that was just materially better priced than all other channels of cars that were in a competitive market, which is either buying at auction or buying from customers, which is where we've been sourcing cars. And so we think with that kind of competitive headwind being pulled away from us, that's also positive. So we look forward to that.

所以我認為我們認為這是一個明確的積極因素，因為它使我們能夠獲得額外的庫存。我們也認為，隨著時間的推移，同樣的動態可能對我們來說是一種競爭阻力，因為有一個單一的汽車管道的價格比競爭市場中所有其他汽車管道的價格要好得多，要么在拍賣會上購買或向客戶購買，這是我們購買汽車的方式。因此，我們認為，隨著這種競爭逆風逐漸遠離我們，這也是正面的。所以我們對此充滿期待。

I think the point that lease rates going down may change some of the dynamics across the sum of the industry. If we move away from just kind of Carvana specific impacts or independent dealer specific impacts to the entire industry, I think that point is correct that fewer cars coming back will change things. But you have to keep in mind, those cars were still sold in 2021. Just a larger proportion of them were sold with a loan or with cash. And so what ends happening then is instead of having a scheduled return of that car to the used car market in 3 years, you instead have kind of a customer making a decision about when do they want to get their next car. And that will, of course, have a distribution over time.

我認為租賃率下降可能會改變整個行業的一些動態。如果我們不再只是對 Carvana 的具體影響或獨立經銷商對整個行業的具體影響，我認為這一點是正確的，即更少的汽車回歸將會改變一切。但你必須記住，這些汽車在 2021 年仍然在銷售。只是其中很大一部分是透過貸款或現金出售的。因此，最終發生的事情不是按計劃在 3 年內將該車返回二手車市場，而是讓客戶決定何時購買下一輛車。當然，隨著時間的推移，這會產生分佈。

But in general, customers still desire to swap between cars. And so we do ultimately expect those cars to come back into the market at the industry level as well, maybe just with a little wider distribution of time. So just to summarize that again, I think these points about the kind of impacts that may occur over the next couple of years to the sum of the used retail market because of reductions in new car sales or reductions in lease volumes. We believe those are correct for the sum of the market. We believe that they are actually benefits to us and to other independent dealers who have effectively been locked out of access to those cars over an extended period of time. So we look forward to that, and we view it as the alleviation of a competitive headwind.

但總的來說，顧客仍然希望換車。因此，我們最終確實希望這些汽車也能在產業層面重新回到市場，也許只是時間分配得更寬一些。因此，再次總結一下，我認為由於新車銷售的減少或租賃量的減少，未來幾年可能對二手零售市場的總和產生的影響有以下幾點。我們相信這些對整個市場來說是正確的。我們相信，它們實際上對我們和其他在很長一段時間內無法獲得這些汽車的獨立經銷商有利。因此，我們對此充滿期待，並將其視為競爭逆風的緩解。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ernie Garcia for any closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回厄尼·加西亞（Ernie Garcia）發表閉幕詞。

Great. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining the call. To Carvana team, thank you. This is another incredible quarter. Said it in 4 or 5 different forums already, but I want to keep repeating it. I think it was incredibly hard for anybody to see us making the kind of progress that we've made over the last 12 months from the perspective of 12 months ago. And that's because we stayed focused, because we kept our heads down, it's because of the incredible work that you've done, and we couldn't be more grateful. Let's make sure we keep doing it, let's make sure that we learn the lessons that we learned over the last 24 months and just become a better version of ourselves into perpetuity. Thank you. We'll talk to you guys all again next quarter.

偉大的。好的，謝謝大家加入通話。感謝 Carvana 團隊。這又是一個令人難以置信的季度。已經在四、五個不同的論壇上說過了，但我想繼續重複。我認為，從 12 個月前的角度來看，任何人都很難看到我們在過去 12 個月中的進步。那是因為我們保持專注，因為我們低著頭，因為你們所做的令人難以置信的工作，我們非常感激。讓我們確保我們繼續這樣做，讓我們確保我們吸取過去 24 個月中學到的教訓，並永遠成為更好的自己。謝謝。下個季度我們將再次與大家交談。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may all now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。你們現在可以斷開連結了。