NEW ORLEANS — Fleet management services for rideshare and a new digital-retail approach are in Ally Financial Inc.’s crosshairs this year, Tim Russi, Ally’s president of auto finance, told Auto Finance News.
With rideshare on the rise, the company intends to expand the Transportation Equipment Finance group it launched last year, Russi said. The company is focusing on commercial sales, because “we want to go where cars get sold. Cars are going to get driven, and whether the consumer owns the vehicle or some third-party fleet management company does — they’re going to need financing,” Russi said during a meeting at the National Automotive Dealers Association convention last week. “There is going to be financing that is needed, and we want to have the products and solutions that are needed at the point of sale.”
Ally has managed a commercial fleet management program for years now, but it has focused on small fleets for business. Forming a commercial financing group around rideshare needs is the same as fleet management, just on a “grander scale,” Russi explained.
Separately, Ally is hoping to draw in new consumers through a partnership with CarSaver, in which Ally will be the preferred lender, online as well as in select Wal-Mart Stores Inc. retail outlets. Ally’s dealer partners will have first dibs at joining the program.
“We think, over time, it attracts consumers into our dealerships that otherwise wouldn’t go in there,” Russi said. Because CarSaver will have representatives in stores to explain the process, the program serves “to train the consumer that this isn’t that complicated of a transaction,” he added.
