This year, CARS24, an e-commerce platform for pre-owned cars, is opening seven company-owned refurbishment centers called Mega Refurbishment Labs (MRLs). With this MRL setup, buyers will have access to high-quality used cars with warranties through a trusted channel. The MRLs will be set up across 35 acres of land in major Indian metro cities.
The pre-owned car ecosystem has always been inefficient because of inherent information asymmetry in the vertical. By combining disruptive technology-driven state-of-the-art facilities, CARS24 aims to establish a gold standard for the quality of used vehicles in India, thus filling the industry’s benchmarking and standardization gap. The brand will also leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science as part of the refurbishment process. These technologies will streamline the entire process while reducing subjectivity.
The MRLs will be set-up in Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Pune. Over 20,000 cars will be refurbished every month in these MRLs, creating about 1500 jobs for auto experts. The operations were said to be up and running by October 2021 as per capacity requirements in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Chennai.
With customer centricity at the very core of CARS24, Kunal Mundra, CEO, CARS24 India, said that the company has achieved some good milestones over the last several years. It is constantly working towards providing a whole new world of cars to customers. CARS24 has realized that the most crucial requirement for buyers is the quality of used cars and therefore have deployed considerable talent and investment in refurbishment infrastructure.
To further meet these consumer needs, they are setting up Mega Refurbishment Labs which will be India’s largest refurbishment facilities. The aim is to deliver quality cars using best-in-class methods, processes, and technology. These features, along with their warranty and 7-day return policies, should ensure a positive customer experience.
It was necessary to establish CARS24 owned capacities for used car refurbishment implemented across multiple brands of cars, as used car buyers still compare used cars to new cars. This requires a high level of standardization on refurbishment work which cannot be accomplished through an outsourced model. DST Global, Falcon Edge, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and others contributed USD 450 million in funding, which practically doubled the firm’s valuation to USD 1.84 billion.
Online pre-owned vehicle transaction platform CARS24 is the largest in India. By combining the talents of Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, and Gajendra Jangid, this company offers a hassle-free and easy transaction experience for those buying and selling pre-owned vehicles (cars and bikes). There are over 200 cities where CARS24 operates in India.
Conclusion
Founded in 2015, CARS24 exists to change the way consumers buy, sell, and research cars; by harnessing technology to solve real-world problems and provide seamless experiences. The platform allows customers to browse through 10,000 vehicles, finance them and offers doorstep delivery with enhanced features such as a 6-month warranty and a return policy with no questions asked.
The refurbishment centers will inspect, recondition, and photograph the vehicles in 360 degrees, assuring listing and selling of good quality vehicles and providing a trustworthy, dependable, transparent buying experience.
