Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has garnered 1,800 bookings online since the launch of its digital booking platform. Over 60 per cent of these online bookings are for SUVs, while sedans and hatchbacks made up 10-15 per cent of the bookings.

According to Brijesh Gubbi Suresh, assistant vice-president and group head, new business strategy, HMIL, online traffic has increased after the lockdown.

“We have been working on our online sales platform before Covid-19. We rolled it out in all regions in January-February this year and in March, it was a pan-India launch of Click to Buy, our online sales platform.”

After the lockdown, there have been over 7 lakh visitors in the sales platform.

“Customers have to register themselves on the platform and the number of registration is increasing month-on-month by 10 per cent,” said Suresh.

However, he admitted that compared to showroom sales, online sales are still minuscule “with customers preferring to be at the showroom at the time of buying which is largely an emotional experience”.

Toyota sees query rush

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has also witnessed a large number of online queries after the lockdown.

Of the total enquiries, around 22 per cent was generated online and 16 per cent of the total orders were online, said Naveen Soni, senior vice-president, marketing and sales, TKM.

“This is nearly double of pre COVID enquiries online which was giving us 8 to 10 per cent of orders online,” said Soni.

The group head also observed that most of the online buyers are SUV buyers though there have been some bookings from sedan and hatchback buyers too.

“We were surprised to find that even Santro has a share in online bookings. So while nearly 70 per cent of our online customers are SUV customers, the rest 30 per cent is split equally between sedan and hatchback buyers,” said Brijesh.

The all new Creta launched in March and the new Verna, launched in April, are getting the most traction.

“Most of the deal negotiation as well as financing is happening online,” said the head. The delivery can happen at the customer’s house if he so wishes but most prefer to take delivery at showroom.