Highlights
Located in Jebel Ali, the company's 1 million sq ft facility is one of the largest refurbishments labs in the country
Cars24, the leading online platform for pre-owned vehicles, has announced that the company's newly opened mega refurbishment lab (MRL) in UAE would roll out close to 20,000+ cars in a year. The lab will run round the clock to ensure that each vehicle undergoes a stringent 150-point quality check prior to listing the cars on its eCommerce platform.
This MRL at Jebel Ali has 70 bays, 5 high-end Italian paint booths, and has the capacity to roll out close to 1,500 cars a month. This leased 1,000,000 facility with a total contract value in excess of Dh40 million, is one of Dubai’s largest-ever leasing deals on record.
“With the launch of our Mega Refurbishment Lab in UAE, our endeavor would be to ensure that all our customers get a completely certified car by us. We have stringent quality checks in place and we ensure that our cars go through various stages of quality tests before it reaches the end customer. We have dedicated teams for each of the stages such as the pre-refurbishment audit, quality control, and post-refurbishment teams that conduct microscopic checks both internally and externally. CARS24 also leverages AI, machine learning, and data science to standardize and optimize the refurbishment process. This will make the entire process efficient and effective while eliminating subjectivity,” stated Abhinav Gupta, CEO, Gulf Region for CARS24.
With a company value of close to US$3.3 billion, CARS24 is revolutionizing the way pre-owned cars are bought in the UAE. Through its next-generation, e-commerce platform for used cars and its new MRL, the company aims to continue its expansion plans in the region. Since the launch of its operations in the UAE in May this year, CARS24 has sold close to 3,500 plus cars and 100 per cent of these transactions were conducted online.
“Cars on our platform undergo a 150+ point inspection check, are refurbished thoroughly, and go through the stringent RTA test before they are listed online. Every car bought from CARS24 comes with a 7 days return policy and most importantly 2 years warranty. Due to our level of confidence in the cars we groom and roll out from our MRL, we are able to ensure customers complete peace of mind for two years by offering a warranty during that period,” added Abhinav.
In addition to the UAE, CARS24 has 12 other major Mega Refurbishment Labs spread across the globe including markets such as India, Australia and Thailand.
In December last year, the company raised Dh75 million in local debt funding from Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), one of the leading banks in the UAE. This debt facility further strengthens CARS24’s commitment to the UAE market and provides significant funding flexibility and room to grow its inventory. In September 2021, CARS24 announced that it would be investing another Dh367 million in the UAE and other GCC countries to further expand its presence.
“The used car market is primarily unorganised and plagued by inefficiencies due to the inherent information asymmetry present in the vertical. Through the convergence of technology-driven cutting-edge facilities, CARS24 is transforming the pre-owned cars industry and thereby bridging the standardisation and benchmarking gap prevalent in the industry,” concluded Abhinav.
