Largest used-car dealer branches out into new car sales

China's largest used-car dealer announced a plan to transform into a car trading company, combining its used-car business and its newly developed new-car brand.

The new conglomerate, "CARS", is the combination of the company's two core business, guazi.com, the biggest car-trading platform in China, as well as Maodou.com — the new-car trading business that the company just established.

With Maodou's launch, the group can now offer complete services to China's car users. From new cars to used cars, consumers will have a much better user experience (UX) through the whole life cycle of a car.

"On Maodou.com, consumers can choose to rent a new car for one to three years, and then decide whether to purchase the car or change another new car to rent," said Yang Haoyong, chief executive officer of Maodou.com, the subsidiary of CARS, said in a media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

Yang added that "in the past, the major threshold for Chinese car users was the price. Especially for the young people, or the millennial, who had not yet saved enough money to purchase a new car, the new-car brand may be a great news for them."

"The down-payment of the new car is as low as zero to 10 percent, then the user have a maximum of three years to drive his/her new car and decide whether to purchase it, or rent a new one," he said.

This is also a blessing for those who don't have a good luck in the license plate lottery system — mostly introduced in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.

"For those who face difficulty in getting a license number for a car, we provide the number for them for up to three years."

Different from Guazi.com, which only provides used car, the new brand enables consumers to have their own new cars with a much lower threshold.

"Three years later, if you don't like the car, you can return it and get another brand-new car. This is particularly welcomed by the younger generation, who are fond of pursuing new things and keep on changing their minds," said Yang.

Same as Guazi.com, Maodou.com takes advantage of the internet, using big data to gather information from its users and help the company provide better services and operate the system in a more efficient way.

CARS has already attracted roughly $600 million financing in the B-round, fully propelling its used car and new car businesses.

Xu Xin, founder and president of Capital Today, one of the investors, said that "with the internet constantly shaping the retail industry, we have now entered the era for 'new retail', a new form of retail driven by progress in technology."

"Automotive services industry, boosted by new science and technology, enjoys a numerous market volume and a promising, profitable future," she said.