Mahindra First Choice sees a growth in online car sales

Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd. (MFCWL) has announced that it has registered a 50% growth in online vehicle sales through its eDiig platform. The company has so far sold over 55,000 units online in FY14 and has strengthened its leadership position in the B2B online vehicle auction space. During the year, the company also added new clients to its roster and expanded its buyer base to 9,500 buyers in 900+ locations across the country.

According to Dr. Nagendra Palle, CEO, Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd., “The standout innovation during the year is the Autoinspekt product. Autoinspekt is an unbiased third party vehicle evaluation report for financiers, dealers, corporates and consumers to determine the condition, quality and value of their vehicles which is generated after physical inspection of the vehicle”. Dr. Palle continued,  “We have completed nearly 40,000 Autoinspekt evaluations since the product launch and it has been received very well, surpassing our expectations.The launch and success of the Autoinspekt product is consistent with our long term strategy of building a strong used vehicle ecosystem using a hybrid (online / offline) approach. We believe products that drive transparency and efficiencity such as Autoinspekt empower all stakeholders in this ecosystem – financial institutions, dealers, OEMs and consumer alike ”

The Autoinspekt product is a comprehensive cloud based system that provides work flow management, pricing and vehicle condition analytics and data archival. The report itself covers 53 parameters across 8 vehicle systems of the car and is prepared after physical inspection of the vehicle by a trained engineer of the company. The success of the auction product illustrates the growing need for and adoption of the ‘bricks and clicks’ hybrid model by the used vehicle industry. Its pricing analytics are driven by IBB (www.indianbluebook.com), another Mahindra First Choice Wheels product. Additionally, Autoinspekt offers proprietary vehicle condition analytics encapsulated in a condition grade of the vehicle.

According to Mr. B Ganeshkumar, Vice President of e-business at Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd., “Our institutional customers have found the Autoinspekt product to be a high impact one. It has resulted in an increase in the average number of bids per car and superior conversion for vehicles put up on our auction platform. Buyer feedback has been excellent. With good vehicle representation online, buyers are able to bid on multiple locations, often without inspecting the vehicle themselves – thus leading to significant time and cost savings.”

Shailesh Rao, Business Head, Used Cars of Mahindra Finance added, “Autoinspekt has impacted all critical metrics related to vehicle disposal – bids/cars sold, conversion rates as well as price realization. We aim to increase the utilisation of this product across our vehicle segments.”

Mr. Kalyanaraman, Chief Operating Officer of TVS Credit Services Ltd who are using the Autoinspekt product for retail financing of used vehicles says, “Autoinspekt’s timing was just right – it was introduced to the industry at a time when the valuation process was largely localized and non-standardized. Autoinspekt is fast becoming an integral part of our loan origination process”.