Cars and SUVs made by Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) will soon be available on lease from ALD Automotive India Ltd, as part of a tie-up announced by the two companies on Thursday. Under the deal, Hyundai vehicles can be leased from ALD for two to five years, depending on the location of the customer.
Hyundai is the second largest carmaker in India, while ALD Automotive India is a leading vehicle leasing service provider. ALD is a unit of French investment bank Societe Generale SA, specializing in fleet management and mobility solutions.
In a statement, HMIL’s executive director, sales and marketing S.J. Ha said the Indian automotive industry is at the cusp of transformation and the company is committed to make shared mobility accessible. Vehicle leasing is rapidly picking pace in India and offers great prospects, he said.
Early this year, Hyundai invested $400 million in SoftBank-backed ride-hailing app Ola and an undisclosed amount in self drive car rental platform Revv. Some of Hyundai’s vehicles are available on a subscription basis on Revv’s platform, while the company plans to test its upcoming low-cost electric vehicles in India through Ola’s fleet.
ALD says on its website that it has operations in 43 countries and manages more than 151 million vehicles. In India, it has a fleet of almost 13000 vehicles, over 280 locations. It started operations in India in 2005 and is based in Mumbai.
The tie-up will help ALD Automotive India explore newer product and service offerings and “take car leasing to the next level” in the Indian car market, ALD Automotive India chief executive officer and whole-time director Suvajit Karmakar said.
As shared mobility eats into vehicle sales in urban areas, automakers are eyeing newer ways to provide new kinds of mobility solutions.
Currently, car leasing business has a penetration of less than 1% in India while it is as high as 45% in developed nations.
Hyundai has been expanding its mobility service solutions in major locations worldwide. The company is committed to offering smarter value to customers to cope with the rapidly-shifting paradigm in the automotive industry, the company said in the statement.
Source: Mint