COVID-19 lockdown | Some carmakers encouraged online purchase of vehicles despite delivery uncertainty

There was no certainty that the Centre’s three-week lockdown period would be lifted on April 14, given the rising cases of COVID-19 across the country. Yet, a handful of manufacturers encouraged and promoted online purchase of vehicles though it became impossible to commit a date of delivery for the bookings because of uncertainty surrounding the lockdown.

On April 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an extension of the lockdown to May 3, which meant that not only the factories producing these vehicles will remain shut, but even the dealerships that were to be responsible for delivering the vehicle will not be operational either.

Hyundai Motor India, Tata Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Mahindra & Mahindra have kept their online bookings open even in the face of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Tata Motors launched the ‘Click to Drive’ program, which is ‘an end to end, full online sales experience enabling customers to buy a Tata Motors car with a click of a button from the comfort of their homes’.

This platform, Tata Motors claims, has been integrated with all Tata Motors dealers from more than 750 outlets and will also offer vehicle home delivery for our customers at a later date.

Hyundai launched the ‘Click to Buy’ program, an online sales platform incorporating over 500 dealerships. The Korean brand allowed customers to decide their preferred delivery option – pickup from the dealership or get it delivered to the doorstep.

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However, not every manufacturer is enthused adopting this method. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), the country’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer states that when the company is not in a position to commit a delivery date due to the lockdown it is unethical to accept money from the customer.

Y S Guleria, Director (sales and marketing) - HMSI, said, “In such an uncertain situation it is not right for us to commit delivery of the vehicle because, honestly speaking, it is not in our hands. How can we commit a delivery date when there could be further extension of the lockdown period and individual localities and districts are being isolated and declared as containment zones?”

“It is not right to get the customer’s money to run our businesses. If the booking does not involve money then I can consider it as a ‘hot enquiry’. But getting somebody’s money when I cannot commit (a delivery date) it looks unfair to me,” Guleria added.

While the vehicle-buying experience does culminate in a physical visit to the showroom the trend of getting prospective customers to book the vehicle online started a few quarters ago in India; Mercedes started taking online bookings from October 2019. The German luxury car giant expects a significant part of its total sales to be completely online by 2025.

French carmaker Renault also started with online sales of its cars in light of the lockdown. However, customers are not required to put any money on the table right away.

A day before the lockdown was to get extended by three weeks Renault launched an online booking campaign, ‘Book Online Pay Later’, which lets the customer book a Renault vehicle online, through the Renault India website or on the My Renault App, without paying any immediate booking amount.