Alibaba planning to launch car vending machines for EVs

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, has partnered with Ford to sell the electric vehicles (EVs) made by the latter in China. The vehicles will be sold via a car vending machine - a dealership without any sales people.

Two facilities in Shanghai and Nanjing are planned to be up by January 2018. Depending on their success, Alibaba will roll out more such automated car dealerships across China.

Cars will be listed on the company's Taobao shopping app from which users can select the cars they like. The prospective customers will then be asked to take their selfie, which will later be used by the facility to identify the person before releasing the car for the test drive. Initially, users have a 3-day period to try the cars out before confirming the purchase. Once decided, the payments will be made through the app or a return will be scheduled.

To limit misuse, there is a limit of 5-test drives every two months. Additionally, to use this feature, customers need to be Alibaba Super Members, based on the company's credit scoring system.

Source - CNET