Alibaba Automotive, a vehicle service arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, on Tuesday announced a partnership with the group's lending affiliate Ant Micro Loan and several automobile manufacturers to offer car loans to users via mobile apps.
Consumers will not need to provide complicated documents, and they can get a decision within half an hour, according to a press release e-mailed to the Global Times by Alibaba on Tuesday. The maximum amount of credit will be 200,000 yuan ($32,258), and the company said the average line of credit is expected to be about 70,000 yuan.
The entire procedure can be completed on Alibaba's mobile apps such as Taobao and Tmall. After consumers choose a car via an app, Ant Micro Loan will evaluate their credit line on the basis of their online shopping activity.
"The cooperation between car companies and e-commerce firms opens a new era that will change the way people buy vehicles. That's in line with the online-to-offline commerce model," Wang Licheng, the general manager of Alibaba Automotive, was quoted in the press release as saying.
"Our new service is expected to boost the country's sluggish car market," Wang noted.
Alibaba Automotive, founded in April, has moved to integrate the traditional automobile industry with the Internet. It is working with 50 established automakers including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Cadillac and Volkswagen to sell cars online.
Alibaba said in the press release that car sales via its online marketplaces - taobao.com and tmall.com - reached about 40 billion yuan in 2014.
