Alibaba has teamed up with the Shanghai free trade zone to sell parallel import automobiles as the e-commerce giant continues to tap the booming cross-border trade.

Alibaba's business-to-consumer site Tmall will tie up with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Automobile Exchange Market Co, one of the 17 government authorized imported car dealers, to sell parallel import cars under a pilot program.

Tmall will open a special store by the end of this month for consumers to collect their vehicles.

The two parties said they target customers of mid- and high-end imported vehicles priced from 200,000 yuan (US$32,240) to 1 million yuan.

"We hope to leverage Alibaba's vast retail consumer base and allow more people to get to know parallel import cars to further expand our market reach," Zhang Min, general manager of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Automobile Exchange Market Co, said in a joint statement yesterday.

Shanghai Waigaoqiao Automobile Exchange Market Co said it will offer after-sales service including guarantee for repair, replacement or refund of faulty products, among others.

Wang Licheng, general manager of Alibaba's automobile unit, said it will work with after-sales service shops so that imported car owners can enjoy more convenient maintenance services.

Alibaba Automotive now boasts partnerships with nearly 50 car brands, 10,000 car dealerships in China and serves 60 million car owners through its website, car.tmall.com.

The FTZ in January launched a pilot program on parallel import of cars, allowing dealers to buy cars directly from abroad.

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