Cazoo has announced three new appointments who have joined from AutoTrader, Tesla and Manheim.

Having raised over £30 million at the end of last year, the online used car buying platform soon to be launched by Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman, has already built a team of over 50 people based in Euston, Central London, and has plans to launch by the end of this year.  

Now that team has been further bolstered with the arrival of automotive sector expertise in the form of former Auto Trader UK sales director Kevin Harding, Tesla's former general manager for remarketing, Tony Long, and Manheim's former Manheim Vehicle Solutions director, Bryan Stringer.

Harding has been appointed pricing director at Cazoo after several years in senior positions at AutoTrader, including UK sales director to more recently being responsible for monetising and scaling AutoTrader’s data and insight solutions.

Long brings 15 years of experience across procurement, in-life services, financial services and remarketing. He joins Cazoo as operations director.

Bryan Stringer joins from Manheim and brings with him 30 years of industry experience with senior board roles at ING and Alphabet. He joins Cazoo as head of operations.

Cazoo’s chief commercial officer, Paul Whitehead, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Kevin, Tony and Bryan to the Cazoo team.

"They are joining at a very exciting time and their experience will be invaluable as we rapidly build out our teams and operations ahead of our launch.”

Zoopla founder Chesterman, who has already invested in carwow and car comparison website Motorway, has said that Cazoo will deliver used cars to customers’ homes within 48 hours and offer a seven-day free returns policy.

His move into the UK’s automotive sector follows the £2.2 billion takeover of the Zoopla's parent company, ZPG, by the US private equity firm Silver Lake, earned him an estimated £66.1m.

The UK's used car market is estimated to be worth over £50 billion annually, with more than eight million used cars sold in 2017 alone.

Commenting on his new venture, Cazoo, which is expected to be launched in the UK next summer, Chesterman told The Times newspaper: “It is one of the biggest retail spaces in which you can’t transact online in this country.

“Why should buying a car be different from buying anything else?”

Chesterman stepped down from his position as chief executive of ZPG in September last year but remains a board member, shareholder and advisor.

In addition to Zoopla, uSwitch, PrimeLocation and Hometrack operate under the ZPG umbrella.