Alibaba sells a record 100,000 vehicles online in 24 hours

What’s the quirkiest thing you can buy online in China?

Alibaba Group Holdings’ Taobao, TMall and AliExpress platforms, which together operate the world’s largest e-commerce services, now sell cosmetics and groceries, electronics, sportswear and cruise holidays.

How about a Levante luxury sports utility vehicle by Maserati, or a flatbed truck by Foton?

As many as 100,000 vehicles by dozens of makers were sold over 24 hours on Taobao and Tmall on November 11, equivalent to what 1,000 typical Chinese dealerships sell in a month, according to data by Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

The top seller was Chery Automobile Co. of Anhui province, which sold 13,000 sedans and compact cars on Friday.

SAIC Motor Co., the largest Chinese carmaker, sold out all 1,500 of its RX5 SUVs, equipped with Alibaba’s YunOS operating software. SAIC also made the Cadillac sedans it makes with General Motors Corp available on Tmall.

During this year’s Singles’ Day, Maserati vouchers could be bought for 50,000 yuan on Tmall, redeemable at 46 dealers around China as deposit for the vehicle, with a sticker price of 999,800 yuan (HK$1.13 million). Range Rover, Jaguar were among other luxury car marques that were also available.

Maserati In March launched the Levante in China by putting them online via Taobao. All 100 Levantes available were sold out in 18 seconds.

Up to 40 per cent of vehicles sold on November 11 were bought on credit, with Alibaba offering car financing of up to 36 months at zero interest.

As many as 120 million buyers qualified for the loans, covering more than 260 brands by more than 40 carmakers, Alibaba said. A Citroen DS vehicle qualifies for 184,000 yuan of loans.

Discounts were also available. BMW offered 9.8 per cent discounts off the 825,000 yuan sticker price of its X5 SUVs inclusive of free shipping from Qingdao city in Shandong province.