India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday announced that it has joined hands with Axis Bank to offer easy financing options for potential car buyers.

The private bank is one of the key partners of Maruti Suzuki for dealer inventory as well as retail financing solutions.

As the part of the collaboration, Axis Bank will offer a variety of EMI options to customers, including 100 per cent on-road funding for salaried customers for eight years, step-up EMI scheme starting at Rs 1,250 per lakh and balloon EMI scheme with final EMI being 25 per cent of loan amount, the company said in a statement.

Besides, the company said as part of the partnership, customers can also choose low equated monthly installment (EMI) scheme for first three months starting with Rs 899. These offers are valid up to July 31.

“The flexi EMI options are aimed to ease liquidity and repayment stress of customers during these tough times,” the company said adding Axis Bank offers auto loans to a wide category of customer segments including salaried, self-employed and with or without income proof customers.

Commenting on the partnership, MSIL Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) Shashank Srivastava said, “one of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic has been change in people’s behaviour when it comes to mobility. Concern over safety and maintaining social-distancing has uptick the preference for having a personal vehicle. We are confident that this association with Axis Bank will help our customers in offering convenient, affordable and cost-effective finance solution for buying cars. With this tie-up our customers will have a wide array of easy finance options to choose from.”

Axis Bank Executive Director (Retail Banking) Pralay Mondal said the COVID-19 pandemic has created a need for more creative and flexible financing options and the bank’s financing solutions will provide the much-needed hassle-free experience of car buying and financing.

The two partners will leverage the strong reach of over 3,000 Maruti Suzuki outlets and more than 4,500 Axis Bank’s branch network to reach out to a wide cross-section of customers across the nation, the statement said.

Earlier, the carmaker partnered with other banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and others with an aim to support its business in pandemic-hit economy.