Discount Retail Chain Lidl Germany (owned by Schwarz Gruppe) is using its internet presence to offer customers cars for leasing in the future. It started this Monday with a Kia Stonic Vision. The model on offer, a so-called city SUV, is black, has a 100 hp engine and, according to official figures, consumes 5.2 liters of gasoline, which causes 120 grams of CO2 emissions.
The lessor is not Lidl itself, but Sixt Leasing. The business is brokered through the Berlin start-up Vehiculum, which has established itself as a platform for a whole range of leasing offers and now has external sales of more than 500 million euros (US$ 600million).
According to Vehiculum, an unlimited collaboration has now been agreed with Lidl. At what intervals and how many cars of which brands are offered via Lidl, they do not want to reveal yet.
The partners launched their first test balloon two years ago, at the time with a Fiat 500, of which 1,000 were released within a week. Lidl offers the cars on its own website, which has had almost 28 million visits in the past six months, and via the Lidl app, which has recorded more than 10 million downloads in the Play Store.
