Maserati’s first SUV, the Levante 350 hp, was sold exclusively on China’s leading e-commerce platform Tmall on Wednesday, priced at RMB 999,800 (USD 153,500). The first 100, worth RMB 100 million in total, sold out in 18 seconds, according to Alibaba.
Alibaba’s auto business division announced on Wednesday that they started a strategic cooperation with Maserati. It is reported that both sides will make joint efforts to promote their automobile e-commerce business for sales, marketing and global expansion.
Maserati staged the world premiere of the Levante 350 hp at the beginning of March at the 2016 Geneva Auto Show. As of now, all Maserati vehicle models can be reserved via its Tmall flagship store. Chinese Customers are able to get any model they like by offering online down payment and paying off the rest of the money at Maserati’s offline stores.
“As an online shopping platform, Maserati’s Tmall flagship store will integrate optimized resources in e-commerce promotion and market sales with Alibaba,” said Wang Li, general manager of Alibaba’s automotive business division.
Tmall started its vehicle-selling business in April 2014, and has sold many car brands including Tesla, BMW, General Motors and Volkswagen.
(Top photo from Sohu.com)
