Autobahn Motors in Singapore built its 15-storey showroom in December and now boasts increased sales and a strong customer base driven by the unusual building and its automated, cherry-picker retrieval system.
The used-car specialist designed and built the tower primarily to reduce its land footprint.
Autobahn Motors general manager, Gary Hong, in an interview with GoAutoNews Premium, said it increased land efficiency by 10 times, holding 60 cars in a single-level space normally capable of holding six cars.
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“It was started because we had to find a way around the high cost of land in Singapore,” he said.
“So we developed the idea and the retrieval system from scratch. We now have interest from around the world – Japan, the US, Ghana, India and elsewhere – after we put it on our website and it went viral.”
Mr Hong said the system was no gimmick.
“This has given us increased sales compared with our previous property,” he said.
“Part of that is that people enjoy coming here. It has a beauty pageant appeal to buyers.”
Autobahn Motors now sells 12 to 15 cars – mostly high-end exotic and prestige models – a month from its new building.
“It’s a clever idea and we have shown that it works. It is aesthetic and it is very functional,” Mr Hong said.
“It is also green – we save a lot in emissions and fuel because we don’t have to shift cars around to get one car out when it goes on a test drive and we save a lot on cleaning cars because they’re now protected from the weather.
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“But it has also meant we have less staff than before for the same reasons. We don’t need people to clean each car every day and move the cars.”
Customers access cars from the building’s ground floor and select the cars they wish to see via a touchscreen display. The retrieval system, which has lifts with ‘fishbone’ flooring to minimise weight and air drag, takes one to two minutes to find and deliver the selected car.
The concept is similar to the Carvana vending machine showroom that similarly has four used vehicles per storey.
Carvana, which recently listed to become a public company, has five vending towers with three in Texas and one each in Tennessee and Georgia.
The company is primarily an online business and uses the towers as a drop-off and delivery point and also as a distinctive selling tool.
By Neil Dowling
Credit: senatus and covered asia
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