The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Friday announced the nationwide roll-out of its digital platform that provides customers end-to-end online car financing solutions.

The company, which had launched Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance in limited cities in December 2020, said it is now available across India for customers of both ARENA (mass market car retail chain) and NEXA (premium cars outlet).

It has on-boarded 14 financiers, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda, Mahindra Finance and Sundaram Finance.

MSI Senior Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) Shashank Srivastava said even before walking into a car dealership, most potential buyers already start their shopping process online -- browsing cars and finance options.

Keeping in view the changing customer behaviour, the company had launched Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance, a digital platform that enables customers with an end-to-end online car financing solution, he added.

"We had done a pilot project in limited cities last year. The response from customers has been encouraging. More than 25 lakh customers have visited Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance platform since its inception," Srivastava said.

Over 1.6 lakh customers configured on-road price and more than 40,000 customers have downloaded the finance sanction letter online, he said.

Srivastava added, "This gave us the confidence to launch it pan-India, with 14 partner financiers offering personalised financing options for our customers."

Through Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance, customers can choose the right finance partner and the best-suited loan product, besides completing all the finance-related formalities and disbursal of the loan online, the statement said.

The company has also integrated the feature for exchange of old cars, thereby allowing customers to get an estimated value of their existing cars in case of a replacement purchase.

"In addition to this, the platform now also offers the option of co-applicant financing, covering a wide spectrum of customer profiles," MSI said.