Car rental follows the trend of The Times

Trends of The Times and enterprises have never been separated. Under the new energy tide and the "double carbon" goal, the car rental industry with a trillion track has also ushered in a period of change. The mobility of car rental, the trend of renting for sale, and the demand for travel quality under the upgrading of consumption all remind car rental companies to move towards new energy and intelligence. Now the car rental industry after more than ten years of development, has tended to industry consolidation, and break out of the first echelon of a hi car rental, under the tuyere, has stepped on the trend. In a sense, the shift to new energy is a win-win for the industry and the company.

The car rental industry has ushered in a new era.

On January 4, Ehi Car Rental and BCG jointly released an industry report titled "A New perspective Insight into the development trend of the car rental industry", which aims to show that the three major trends of consumption upgrading, new energy intelligent vehicle penetration, and autonomous driving technology evolution are bringing sweeping changes to the car rental industry.

Not long ago, car rental companies represented by Hertz began to use new energy vehicles in batches, which released a very important signal behind the car rental industry will usher in a new stage - that is, embrace new energy.

At present, new energy and intelligence are the consensus of the global automotive industry. In the face of the "new wind" of the automobile industry, foreign and joint venture brands no longer have a leading advantage, but are standing on the same starting line with us, and may even achieve reverse. This may be an opportunity to lead the transformation of the global automotive industry.

The domestic car rental industry was born more than half a century later than foreign countries, but it is growing rapidly. Like the global car rental industry, scientific and technological innovation in China's car rental market after 2020 has reshaped the industry pattern. Players who can grasp the trend will usher in a new round of growth.

The next big thing in the car rental industry

Over the past two years, the impact of "dual carbon" has far exceeded everyone's expectations, and the market's expectations for new energy and electric vehicles have evolved from a structurally beneficial supplement to the ultimate comprehensive

replacement of traditional fossil energy and fuel vehicles.

As a result, in the past two years, new energy vehicles, to midstream batteries, lithium main materials, and then to upstream lithium mines, funds poured in frantically, and stock prices soared.

Take Ideal Automobile as an example, at the end of last year only 20 stores, the end of this year has been close to 200, an increase of 10 times, the establishment of a large number of new stores contributed to the sales expansion. Credit Suisse predicts that by 2025, new energy vehicles are expected to reach 25% penetration, and by 2030 will reach 50%.

Interestingly, both the number of people on this year's Hurun Rich List and their total wealth increased by more than 20% over last year, mainly due to the rapid growth of new energy-related industries, and the growth of the electric vehicle market to boost the wealth of many Chinese entrepreneurs. Compared to five years ago, half of this year's list is new, which means that new industries and business models are changing the landscape.

In the face of the fierce momentum of the "green revolution", the car rental industry has gradually shifted from fuel vehicles to new energy, and is carrying out an industrial transformation.

Car rental is not a new industry. Horse-drawn carriages are believed to have been hired in ancient Rome. Since the first car rental company was established in Minneapolis, the car rental industry has gone through a century of history. After rapid development from the early 21st century to 2020, the car rental industry has entered the merger and integration stage.

The domestic auto industry only started in the 1980s, and the initial players were mainly large state-owned enterprises. In 2002, the domestic car rental market entered a period of rapid development, when the world's largest car rental company Hertz and Zhongqi Hua 'an reached a cooperation, began to enter the market, but at that time the overseas car rental model is not suitable for domestic.

However, in the following 10 years, the outbreak of short-term rental demand has attracted many players to enter the game, and new domestic leasing companies have emerged. After 2012, the rapid rise of consumer leasing, the industry has entered a stage of rapid growth, to Ehi car rental, China car rental, Shouqi car rental as the representative of the leader has basically completed the short-term rental business layout of important cities in the country. In fact, the Internet of car rental in the later period, especially the battle of Internet car rental such as Didi, has also made the industry begin to survive the fittest.

Ehi car Rental from 2006, development has been more than ten years of history. Although there are new players, large or small, entering the game during this period, Ehi Car Rental still firmly occupies the first echelon.

After 20 years of development, China's car ownership has been firmly ranked in the world, in 2020, China's car ownership reached 280 million, is expected to increase to 370 million in 2025. However, in contrast, there are a large number of Chinese driver's license holders, which has reached 420 million people, and the number of "licensed without a car" is 140 million. According to the forecast, by 2025, the "licensed without a car" population will continue to expand, providing a potential user reserve for the rental car market.

Car rental is still a trillion track with huge room for growth, but the focus will shift from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy. In 2019, Didi and BAIC jointly established a new energy vehicle company to jointly build cars, which is actually the surge of new energy.

In addition to Didi, more capital is pouring into this industry, including traditional cars, the Internet and other emerging forces, the car rental industry is also the same. Whether it is the user's online habits or policy orientation, behind the increasing sales of new energy vehicles, the next outlet of rental cars is already a bright card.

Compared with the past, the rapid development of the car rental industry has more mature conditions.

For example, China's vast territory and the gradual improvement of highways, high-speed rail and civil aviation and other transportation infrastructure together provide rich soil for tourism self-driving car rental; Leading the global automobile industry and breaking through the development of mobile Internet have further boosted the maturation and rapid growth of the car rental industry.

The layout of "new energy vehicles" has long been started

After a round of reshuffle, the current head of the domestic car rental industry is mainly based on Hi car rental and Shenzhou car rental, and compared with Shenzhou car rental, Hi car rental was established earlier. Ehi car rental can stand out from a large number of car rental companies, with its dedicated attitude and the pursuit of service has a lot to do with.

In order to meet the needs of diverse users, Ehi car rental provides a variety of car methods, and supports personalized customization. Users can customize different travel methods according to their actual situation. According to relevant data, at present, Ehi Car rental has opened more than 8,000 service outlets in more than 500 cities across the country, covering more than 90% of airports and high-speed rail stations. The huge number of outlets support, so that its off-site pickup and return needs to be met.

Do car rental business started a hi car rental, a huge source of first-hand vehicles is one of its big advantages. But at the same time, the purchase of vehicles needs to consume a lot of money, and the price and subsidies of new energy vehicles are more attractive than fuel vehicles.

The three major trends of consumption upgrading, the penetration of new energy intelligent vehicles, and the evolution of autonomous driving technology are bringing earth-shaking changes to the rental industry. In fact, before the outbreak of new energy, Ehi Car rental has begun to lay out new energy. Car rental companies and vehicle manufacturers usually maintain a good cooperative relationship, from the vehicle manufacturers to buy new cars at a low discount, and with the traditional car companies into new energy, the cooperation between the two sides will be extended from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles.

As early as 2010, Ehi Car Rental and BYD started a new energy car rental "test water"; In 2013, EHI Car Rental formed a strategic partnership with SAIC, and the first batch of Roewe E50 pure electric vehicles were also put into the Shanghai car rental market by EHI Car Rental, and EHI car rental opened the first electric car rental store in China.

In 2014, Ehi Car Rental not only became the first corporate user of Tesla in China, the global leader in new energy vehicles, and purchased hundreds of TeslaModel S models to put into the market, but also reached a purchase order of thousands of new energy models including Roewe 550PLUG-IN (plug-in hybrid) and Roewe E50 with Shanghai Group again. In 2015, Ehi Car Rental and BMW together, 160 BMW Zinoro 1E pure electric car layout in Beijing car rental market.

With the refinement of demand, the car rental business also tends to be intelligent.

Ehi Car Rental has cooperated with many domestic and foreign automobile companies in recent years, and is the first time to launch new models of cooperative brands to provide users with a deep driving experience. For example, in 2021, two new energy vehicles of Polar Fox officially entered ehi.

Among them, the polar Fox Alpha S 708S+ driving range exceeded 700 kilometers, but also equipped with L2.5 intelligent driving, as well as automatic parking and automatic patrol lines, automatic near and far light outside, can achieve magic remote control parking and HWA highway automatic lane change assistance configuration, greatly improving the driving experience.

In addition to enhancing the experience, there is also a very important reason for intelligent car rental, which can save operating costs, intelligent and unmanned is expected to significantly reduce the human investment of car rental companies, and effectively save business operating costs.

Win-win for the industry and the company

In fact, car rental companies play a very important role in the value chain of new energy intelligent vehicles. Although the current sales of new energy vehicles have increased significantly, the domestic penetration rate is still low, and the purchase volume of rental companies can promote the increase in sales of new energy vehicles.

The essence of the car rental industry is "sharing the real economy", to "rent" instead of "buy" can promote the sharing of resources, in line with the sustainable development of the country and society.

Taking ehi car rental data as an example, a rental vehicle can turnover nearly 70 times in a year on average, it can be a white-collar short-distance business transport, it can be a means of transportation for family travel, it can allow couples to complete the town scenic tour, it can also take young people to see the green mountains, and it can also be the company of workers on the way home.

This figure not only shows that the car rental industry can serve different groups, but also means that the car rental companies help realize the efficient use of social resources by "sharing" cars, promote resource sharing, and help the country achieve the "double carbon" goal.

Therefore, in a sense, the transformation of new energy is a win-win situation for the industry and the company.

The car rental market is a racetrack with huge space.

Data show that in 2020, China's car rental market size of about 87 billion yuan, by 2025, this scale will reach about 158.5 billion yuan, a compound annual growth rate of about 13%, is expected to achieve double growth in the next five years.

After ten years of development of the industry, with the change of the supply side, the trend of industry integration is obvious, and the head with brand effect will have more opportunities in the future.

The reason why Ehi car rental can rank in the first echelon, or the source of its expanding business gradually formed a closed loop.

Not long ago, the national chain direct car rental brand Ehi car rental announced the official entry into the used car direct sales store, the first hundreds of stores covering 29 cities.

It is worth noting that the car rental industry is an asset-heavy industry, which needs to focus on the management of residual value. According to the report "A New Perspective Insight into the Development trend of the car rental industry", the average age of vehicles commonly used for rental is three years, with an annual elimination rate of about 33%. The head car rental companies in order to maintain the size and quality of the fleet, the annual renewal of the number of vehicles more than 10,000, the eliminated vehicles are short in age, maintenance records can be checked, is a high-quality second-hand car source.

It is understood that the global situation of chip shortage this year has led to a decline in the supply of new cars in the country, the attributes of the seller's market are obvious, and there is more demand for used cars, which will continue in the short term.

Before the rise of new energy vehicles, the heavy asset model of Ehi car rental has been a concern of the outside world. Ehi car rental, entering the used car market, opening up the rental and sale model, can not only do the value of high stock of used cars, but also reduce the financial pressure, so as to form a commercial closed loop.

The new energy car rental layout at the other end of Ehi car rental is the key to whether it can win the second half. Now, whether it is a change in policy factors or travel methods, they are more inclined to new energy vehicle leasing. More than that, while becoming the accelerator of industrial development, it completes the closed loop from use to ecology.