Social commerce Pinduoduo, which most famous for its cheap fruit deals, is planning to sell vehicles on its group buy platform, the company says.

The Nasdaq-listed Chinese e-commerce upstart will sell 200 Wuling Hongguang S1, one of the country’s bestselling car models, with discounts between 10% to 34% in the promotion campaign starting on Sunday. The first ten customers will get 34% discount and the remaining 190 cars will be sold at 10% discount, according to Pinduoduo. Wuling Hongguang’s official price is RMB 52,800 (USD 7,800).

Customers who wish to buy the discounted car from Pinduoduo will need to pay an RMB 999 (USD 147.6) deposit and order the car from local car dealers via telephone. After they finish the purchase from local stores they can claim subsidies from Pinduoduo.

Wuling Hongguang is a leading brand in the low-tier city and rural market and its S1 has sold more than 89,000 units in the first quarter of 2019. Pinduoduo, meanwhile, has been very successful in attracting low-tier city and rural users.

The campaign is Pinduoduo’s first dip into the car sales market, and the platform aims to offer more car models from different brands, according to a spokesperson from Pinduoduo.

Editor: Nadine Freischlad