Amazon and Hyundai are teaming up to sell cars online. Dealers will still play a major role in the transaction but this move appears to offer more power and knowledge to the consumer. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect when car-buying goes live next year on Amazon.
This partnership includes a number of changes for Hyundai including the use of AWS as its cloud provider and integration of Amazon Alexa in next-gen models. For now though, the big news is that starting in 2024, car shoppers will have the chance to buy a brand-new Hyundai directly on Amazon.
Marty Mallick, VP of Worldwide Corporate Business Development at Amazon, explained the process this way: “The online shopping experience will allow you to purchase a car through Amazon’s US store… You’ll be able to compare the selection at local dealerships and see transparent pricing… You can choose your preferred model, color, and features… and check out entirely online… Then you pick up your vehicle from your local dealership at a time that works best for you.”
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The service will be available for public use later next year. Hyundai is the first brand that will be available but others will likely follow. Hyundai cited customer dissatisfaction as part of the reason it’s making his move. That shouldn’t come as much of a shock considering the wild markups we’ve seen on some Hyundai products in the past. At the same time, markups could still be a problem in this new system.
Dealers will still be the seller of record. It sounds like they’ll still be able to set the final sale price. It appears that by making the pricing more transparent and taking the dealer out of the equation until the handover, customers might have a better chance at getting a good deal. It should be easy to compare and contrast one dealer to another and subsequently pick the one that provides the best purchase price. Empowering customers could lead to more competitive behavior from dealers.
While Hyundai may be the first automaker to team up with the e-commerce titan, Amazon’s venture into the car-selling arena is likely to pique the interest of other automakers too. Although not directly impacted, the announcement led to a temporary dip in Carvana, Carmax, and TrueCar’s stocks, with losses of up to 7%, before they managed to regain most of that ground.