Car rental: half of the price is lost

In the history of "the most fragmented" National Day holiday detonated the car rental market. At the same time, several “earthquake” incidents occurred in the domestic car rental industry last month, and Wuhan’s “seismic feeling” was evident.

After “one car rental” played the “99 yuan per day special” slogan, another “premium car rental” reduced the price to 98 yuan, while the car rental company in China, which has just received more than 1 billion yuan from Legend Holdings, will In a bid to reduce the daily rent by 30% to 50%, the minimum rental price for the BYD F0 model is only 79 yuan per day.

A price war basically cut almost half of Wuhan’s price of “150 yuan”.

What will happen to this market in the future? In interviews conducted in the past few days, the heads of several car rental companies in Wuhan have spoken loudly, and the “big names” have waged a price war. Small companies may have to “half dead”.

Last weekend, Zou Xiong, who works for a foreign company in Hankou, rented a car and traveled with his family. In addition to better privacy, the most attractive to Zouxiong is the low price.

“About 100 blocks can be rented for a car, and there is a substantial discount on the first day of renting a car. Before a certain company made a special offer of 99 yuan/day, another car rental company dropped to 98 yuan/day.” Zou Xiong said. After a day of play, even if you add fuel costs, the total will not exceed 300 yuan, "a more cost-effective."

However, renting a car was a hassle three or four years ago. Zou Xiong said frankly, "Not only do I need to have a household registration book, a real estate license, but also a large amount of money." Even so, "not the local people can not rent a car."

In the past few days, the reporter learned that after visiting some of the city’s car rental companies, many companies have started to accept orders for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day’s car rental since last month. Some leasing company’s cars have been rented out half, and most of them are booked “11. "Use the car.

Why rent a car so hot? It is understood that, in addition to open the price of good, a popular fast car rental mode is also the main reason: no deposit, no guarantee, credit card to get on, customers do not need to pay the deposit, do not have to show proof of residence, etc., can be off-site car rental, return the car.

"For consumers, 'industry expansion' is good news, for example, price." Industry analysts pointed out that within three years, the Wuhan car rental industry has ushered in heavyweight players - China, Yifan, Supreme, "all" National chain of car rental agencies.

There is no "big" rivers and lakes

“If you don’t drive every day, it’s definitely cheaper to rent a car than to buy a car.” The relevant person in charge of the Shenzhou Car Rental Company once stated that excessively high prices have long been an important factor in restraining the development of the car rental market. Simple calculations: a car 200,000, depreciation 10% each year, plus parking fees, insurance, maintenance fees, etc., at least 20,000 yuan a year, this money is enough to rent the same car 120 days.

“The company is now entering a lot of new cars.” Xiong Wei, customer manager of Wuhan Branch of Shenzhou Cars Co., Ltd. said that the company has four stores in Han and 120-130 cars in the off-season. By the end of the year, it will have more than 200 cars. Almost every brand has Seven or eight different models are available.

His explanation for this is that: China's car rental has absorbed the money. "On the one hand, Wuhan has such a demand. On the other hand, institutions have invested more money." In August, the news that China Shenzhou Car Rental had introduced Legend Holdings’ one billion yuan equity and bonds had already gone. It was also said that it had shaken billions of bank loans. In the same month, a rental car also “received” several VC institutions and invested nearly RMB 600 million in funds.

In the opinion of Yu Baoyu, a manager of a car rental company in Wuhan, the car rental market in Wuhan is “no boss”, and it is impossible for a big company to take it all together. The key is to do misplaced competition.

Luo Jiwen, executive vice president of the Wuhan Auto Circulation Industry Association, bluntly stated that Wuhan's car rental companies with scales (with more than 200 vehicles) had “one hand to count”, and most of them were ten or even five or six vehicles. Small company.

Most local companies are difficult to sustain

The industry believes that the car rental industry has a huge market space, but now the market is very fragmented, and the price war of big companies has made it impossible for some local car rental companies to “150 yuan per day”.

"This market needs to be shuffled." Some people in the industry bluntly said, "If the price war continues to escalate, small companies may have to die in half. In addition, many companies in Wuhan still do not have qualifications, services are not standard."

It is understood that, compared with foreign “big names”, the profit model of many local leasing companies in Wuhan lies in maintaining close ties with some units and using some vehicles that have been idle for a long time or that are not highly utilized.

“In case of 'in short supply', each leasing company will call some units of buses or franchised private cars to save the urgency.” The head of a local car rental company in Wuhan reluctantly stated that at this stage, the entry threshold is too low, and everyone is divided soup.

In recent years, with the popularity of private cars, it has become common for some owners to link their cars to car rental companies. For small and medium-sized companies with limited capital, they are also willing to accept them.

“The car rental industry is too risky.” Car rental professionals who have been with a local company for many years said that compared to these national chain car rental companies, the vast majority of local car companies have little risk resistance.

In recent years, there have been more and more "car rental frauds" cases. In the words of people in the industry, “The leasing company’s car was cheated and it was up to them to find it; the leasing company’s car was in violation of the regulations, the leasing company left the leasing company and the leasing company had to be punished; the leasing company’s car had an accident. The leasing company is jointly and severally liable."

It is understood that in 1998, the State issued the “Provisional Regulations on the Administration of the Automobile Leasing Industry”, specifying that the competent department of traffic is the management department of the automobile leasing industry and provides the conditions for operating the automobile leasing enterprises.

Before July 2007, most areas of the country targeted rental vehicles as rental commercial vehicles. Not only did they have to apply for taxi operating licenses, but they also paid 40% more tax than the leasing industry. Until 2007, the car rental license Only loosened.

“We can only understand that there are more than 300 tax-paying leasing companies.” Industry insiders are reluctant to say that apart from these more than 300, other underground leasing companies simply cannot count.

The status quo in the current market is that many companies still have no qualifications and services are not standard: “This market needs to be reshuffled.” A leasing company manager said.