Chinese car manufacturer Geely is tackling the COVID19 pandemic by having the keys for new car buyers delivered by drone in order to limit human contact.

Since 10 February, Geely has allowed online vehicle orders. Through this proprietary online sales system, customers are able to request home test drives, browse vehicles for sale, complete insurance and finance detail and opt for home or workplace delivery instead of collecting direct from the dealer. Geely have now announced the option of drone car key delivery.

This follows Tesla’s announcement of non-contact delivery of vehicles in the USA, where an app will allow customers to open their new vehicle with paperwork already inside.

Geely said it had already sold more than 10,000 cars online with a further 110,000 users registering their interest in the brand’s virtual dealership. Cars are disinfected by the dealer through ionisation before going out for delivery, and an innovative N95-certified air purification system works with the air conditioning in filtering out bacteria and viruses.

Geely told Business Insider that coronavirus concerns pushed the company “to take [its] interior program a step further at the dealership level”.

Geely is also the parent company of Volvo and Lotus.