In the post-epidemic era, the advantages of freedom and privacy have highlighted the rapid increase in demand for car rental
Car rental companies usher in the market outbreak window period
Our reporter Yang Ranran
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There are currently more than 1.45 million car rental-related companies in China.
While the industry is developing rapidly, there are still some problems and shortcomings.
Experts call for the establishment of standards for the car rental industry, and promote the industry to gradually become open and transparent.
With the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, major tourism travel platforms have successively handed in their answer sheets for holiday travel in recent days.
The report shows that under the centralized release of demand for two-day trips, self-driving trips with better privacy and more flexible travel are becoming more popular than ever.
Affected by this, the self-driving car rental market is also extremely hot. Whether it is China Rent-A-Car, Ctrip or eHi Travel, the orders of various car rental companies ushered in a big explosion during the double festival.
Industry experts believe that in the post-epidemic era, people’s attention to the sanitation, disinfection, safety, independence, and comfort of vehicles has increased, and self-driving car rentals continue to heat up, and the car rental market has ushered in a window period for market outbreaks. The car rental industry is expected to enter the fast lane of sustained and rapid development in the future.
Self-driving travel is heating up and the car rental market is hot
"After thinking about it for a long time, I still feel that it is most convenient to rent a car for self-driving." During the National Day Golden Week this year, Mr. Cui's family from Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province chose to rent a car for self-driving after they came to Beijing. In addition to visiting must-see attractions such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, they also checked in Beijing by the way. Nearby attractions include Universal Studios and Gubei Water Town.
In recent years, the high level of privacy, high security, and the convenience of walking away has made the demand for self-driving tours remain high.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, from October 1st to 7th, 515 million domestic tourists traveled nationwide, among which 55.8% of tourists chose to travel by car, an increase of 10 percentage points from last year.
The continued rise in the popularity of self-driving tours has also ignited the car rental market.
The reporter learned that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays this year, the car rental platform business was very hot, and some stores were full of orders.
In this context, many car rental platforms have increased their car rental prices during the double festival period. It is still hard to find a car when the price of some special models has doubled. Many platforms have also set a minimum car rental period. It is difficult to rent a car if the minimum period is lower.
Ctrip data shows that during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, car rental orders increased by 77% compared to 2019.
According to the big data of China Car Rental on November 11, during the National Day Golden Week this year, the total number of car rental orders has increased significantly, and the average daily booking volume has increased by nearly 35% compared with the same period in 2020.
According to eHi travel data, orders for self-driving trips in different places accounted for 73% of the total National Day orders. High-speed rail plus car rental self-driving has become a new trend for Chinese long-distance travel, and car rental orders at high-speed rail sites have increased by 50%.
Morgan Stanley's related report predicts that car rental and self-driving will become the mainstream landing travel service for large transportation such as supporting aircraft and high-speed rail, and the future prospects are promising.
Multiple factors are good for car rental companies
In the past two to three years, the state has successively issued support policies for car rental platforms and infrastructure supporting facilities.
On February 9 this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Guidelines for Promoting Auto Consumption in the Commercial Field" and "Local Experiences and Practices in Promoting Auto Consumption", proposing to expand the car rental market.
Promote the improvement of transportation hubs such as airports and railway stations, as well as the parking facilities of passenger flow distribution centers, and attract enterprises to develop car rental business.
Encourage car leasing companies to expand the coverage of their outlets, optimize the layout of their business outlets, and provide services such as "one point rent, multiple points," "one city rent, multiple cities," and other services; develop long-term, short-term, time-sharing and other leasing models; use information It integrates vehicle reservation, pickup and return, electronic payment and insurance "one-stop" services.
In addition, the expansion of "you have this" (driver's license) car-free population and the introduction of purchase restrictions in some areas have also further expanded the demand for car rental.
In 2020, the number of car drivers nationwide will reach 418 million, while the number of private cars will be 244 million.
As of 2020, the number of people who own cars and have no cars has risen to 174 million.
The continuous growth of the number of drivers has provided a broad user base for the car rental market.
According to data from Tianyan Check, there are currently more than 1.45 million car rental-related companies in China.
In the past five years, the annual registration growth rate of my country's car leasing-related companies has been maintained at more than 20%, of which the increase in 2020 will be the largest, with more than 290,000 related companies newly added.
As of the end of September, my country has added more than 200,000 new car rental-related companies this year.
On August 16, Analysys released the "Annual Comprehensive Analysis of China's Car Rental Market 2021".
The report shows that China's car rental market is now entering a period of rapid development after experiencing an exploratory period and a market start-up period.
In 2021, China's car rental market will reach 84.924 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.8%.
It is estimated that in 2022, the total scale of China's car rental market will exceed 100 billion yuan, reaching 106.156 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25%.
In this 100-billion-level market, a relatively stable market pattern has been formed after the big waves.
Specifically, from the perspective of enterprises, China Car Rental and EHi Car Rental are undoubtedly the leading companies, while Shouqi Car Rental, Liandongyun, Wukong Car Rental, Ctrip Car, EVCARD, Gofun Travel, and Xiaoju Car Rental are among the second and third echelons of the market.
Promote industry transparency
While the car rental industry is developing rapidly, the existing problems and shortcomings are also hindering the development of the industry.
According to Ctrip's survey of users, it is found that users are most concerned about the various guarantees in the car rental process relative to the price. More than 90% of users want to change the traditional car rental deposit model.
Vehicle conditions and fuel service fees are also core issues.
There are also strong calls for whether the disclosure of car rental insurance claims is clear and transparent, whether the service quality of the car pickup store is reliable, whether there is a customer service to provide full service, and whether the order can support refunds and changes, etc., are also very strong.
In addition, there are fewer routes that support free cross-city car return, and the high cost of cross-city car return between most cities is a bit more complaints from consumers.
Data shows that in the United States, about 35% of new car sales are done by car rental companies. In terms of bus purchases, the proportion of car rental companies is even higher, even exceeding 50% in recent years.
Compared with the car rental market in European and American countries, the current overall scale of my country's car rental industry is small, scattered, and weak.
Although there are many companies engaged in car leasing, they are generally not large in scale and the distribution of outlets is not perfect.
Experts in the industry suggest that in order to achieve better development of the car rental market, the personal credit system should be improved, car rental hot risk prevention should be strengthened, and car rental business laws and regulations should be formulated to raise the barriers to entry; standardize corporate competition and guide the development of online platforms ; Establish industry standards for car leasing, and promote the industry to gradually become open and transparent.