Unrae, +32% car and off-road rental contracts

Long-term car and off-road rental contracts recorded strong growth in the first quarter of 2023. With a total of 178,391 units, the increase is 31.9% compared to the first quarter of 2022. All components are growing in volume, with private individuals holding 25,497 stipulated contracts (14.3% of the total compared to the peak of 17.4% in January-March 2022) and the macro-area of ​​companies with 152,894 contracts (85.7%). It emerges from the analysis carried out by Unrae, in collaboration with MIT. Non-automotive companies are the category stably in first place among users, accounting for 72.7% of contracts, up by 31%. In the same macro-area of ​​companies, the contracts of short-term rental companies follow, passing from 4.6% to 7.4% of the share. The contracts entered into by dealers and builders are positioned at 3.3% and at 2.3% those relating to long-term rental companies which – following the seasonality – are downsized compared to the previous quarters. The average duration of contracts in the quarter was 23 months, in line with the same period in 2022. On the fuel front, diesel continues to prevail among private individuals (36.1%), long-term leasing (41.7 %), dealers and manufacturers (40.7%) and non-automotive companies (59.8%), while the petrol engine has the leadership among short-term rentals (39.1%). Hybrids, growing in all channels, are positioned on a share ranging from 26.7% of dealers and manufacturers to 18.8% of non-automotive companies. Decreasing performance instead for plug-in hybrids among private individuals, from 11.7% in the first quarter of 2022 to 6.4% today; the same goes for pure electric ones which drop from 4.7% to 3.3%. Plug-in hybrids increase slightly in the macro-area of ​​companies, while electrics also increase only among non-automotive companies.