In a first, Maruti Suzuki India Limited launched an online car financing service ‘Smart Finance’ for its premium NEXA customers across 30 cities on Wednesday. This, Maruti Suzuki India claims, makes it the first Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to offer an online, end-to-end, real time car finance service facility. NEXA is Maruti Suzuki’s premium retail chain.
The Smart Finance initiative looks to offer a comprehensive financing solution online to NEXA customers in a bit to simplify and digitize a customer’s financial process while buying a car. Maruti said in a statement that the Smart Finance platform that is available on the NEXA website will act as a one-stop-shop for the customers.
Its service entails choosing the right finance partner, selecting the best suited loan product, completion of all the finance related formalities such as producing documents, and disbursal of loan, all within just a few clicks.
The NEXA website basically acts as a conduit between the customer and financier providing a wide variety of choices on loan offers, real time status updates and in turn providing a hassle free and transparent financing solution. The customer will be able to compare multiple scenarios for his car loan and make an informed choice of his loan partner.
Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India said, “We have always explored unique ways to assist our customers in their car buying journey. Under the Smart Finance platform, currently hosted on the NEXA website, we have partnered with several popular financiers to provide custom curated personalized loan offers for our customers. This digital service offers easy financing options and is completely transparent at each stage of the loan process. Among other advantages, the customer gets to customize the EMI, by choosing the loan tenure and interest rate and selecting a preferred down payment scheme.”
Maruti Suzuki has tie-ups with eight financiers: HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, ICCI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Cholamandalam Finance, AU Small Finance Bank, Mahindra Finance and Kotak Mahindra Prime.
The Smart Finance service is now available for NEXA customers and for salaried employees, in 30 cities including Delhi, Gurugram, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Cochin, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Goa, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Surat, Vadodara, Ranchi, Raipur, Nagpur, Trivandrum, Visakhapatnam, Udaipur, Kanpur, Vijayawada, and Dehradun.
Currently this service is available only for its NEXA customers. Progressively, it will be extended for the ARENA customers with addition of new financiers, inclusion of self-employed profiling and extension to new cities.