The chip shortage results in increasingly longer waiting times for those who want a new car. Car rental companies Hertz and Avis are getting into such trouble that they buy used cars to expand their fleet anyway.
Car rental companies need a constant growth of new cars to keep the fleet up to date but also large enough. Especially now that the corona crisis has passed its peak and more cars will be rented again. However, Hertz and Avis, among others, encounter a new problem in the US: the supply of new cars is so disrupted by the worldwide chip shortage that the rental companies have to look for another solution. That is why they have been buying used cars at a young age to refresh their fleet, reports Automotive News.
The cars are mainly bought in large batches at auctions. Cars are also bought from lease fleets or from stocks at dealers. In the US, the shortage of new cars would already have resulted in a significant rise in used car prices. According to analysts, there is a good chance that the rental companies themselves will not experience much financial nuisance from the situation, but that consumers will be charged higher rents due to the scarcer supply. It may even be beneficial for the lessors, since the supply is smaller than the demand and consumers may be more willing to dig deeper into their pockets for a rental car.