Most of the digital platforms in the country deal with pre-owned cars as Indian customers are not inclined towards buying new vehicles though websites.
My New Car – India’s first online platform dedicated to virgin cars – expects to challenge the existing order and inculcate the habit of buying new cars from online portals among the Indian customers.
Launched during the Google India online festival in 2014, the website has become operational from March 2015. My New Car aims to replace the dealers and provide transparent car buying experience to customers who do not wish to visit multiple dealers before buying a vehicle.The websites provides live video chat facility to customers with the technical experts. As a result it would help the customers to enhance the knowledge and select the car they want to purchase.
Madhukar Manpuria who is the CEO and founder of the website claims to be an automobile enthusiast and aims to establish an ecosystem where car buying becomes a hassle fee experience. In the third week of October the android application of My New Car was launched which will be followed by IOS application in the next few weeks. Manpuria says that 65% of the users access the internet from the mobile. So it was imperative that the application was launched as soon as possible.“We have mostly sold premium hatchbacks and compact sedan from our website. Currently we have a gross merchandise value of $3 million. By 2020 we expect 20% of the total new car buyers in the country will purchase new vehicles from online portals,” said Manpuria. As of now only 1% to the new car buyer chooses websites as a preferred medium of buying a new vehicle. Currently, My New Car operates only in Mumbai, Pune Bangalore and Delhi and in 2016 the website will start selling new cars in 10 other cities in India. Starting from March this year, the website has sold 200 new vehicles and has 100 dealers registered with it.
The company was started with an initial funding of $250,000 by the Dreams ventures of Switzerland and some other funds from India.
The website is in talks to raise additional funds for its expansion and development drive. “Currently we are in talks with fund managers for our Series A funding,” added Manpuria.The website is first of its kind in the Indian e-commerce and automobile space to provide include all aspects of car buying i.e. booking of the vehicles, arranging for test drives test drives, providing finance and insurance for the vehicle. My New Car has already tied up with ICICI and Bajaj Allianz to provide vehicle insurance to potential customers.
MY New Car has 13 car brands which include the likes of Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Chevrolet and many others.
[“source-financialexpress”]