When travel bans lifted and the activities of the world resumed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the folks who had been confined to their homes were eager to hit the road — and they haven’t stopped. This year, the car rental industry earned a record-breaking $38.3 billion, according to Auto Rental News’ most recent fact book.
That’s fairly big news, because last year, the car rental industry also shattered the previous profit record, when it logged $36.1 billion. In 2022, that represented a 30-percent growth over profits from the previous year; 2023's growth is a far more reasonable five percent — but it’s still an incredible number as far as the fraught rental industry is concerned, and it has totally outshone pre-pandemic rental numbers.
Chris Brown, associate publisher of Auto Rental News, noted that the less drastic spike in growth might actually be a good thing for the time being, saying, “This slower growth was expected, and even welcomed as it came with a return to more normalized seasonal fleeting and de-fleeting patterns. However, fleet and other expenses rose at least 15 percent, which ate into earnings.”
Oh, and all those profits? They came despite the fact that overall industry revenue per vehicle dropped slightly this year; each month in 2023, companies made $1,412.50 per vehicle, compared to $1,424 per vehicle per month in 2022.
And that’s all despite a weird and wild year in the rental car world. Fleets fielding Tesla vehicles have felt the strain as the company slashed its retail prices, while others have complained of the repair costs that accompany an electrified fleet. However, we also ran into a handful of stories about overcharging, weird contracts that result in customers losing money, and inefficient record keeping resulting in cops seizing legally rented vehicles. Just make sure you’re really delving into that rental contract to read the fine print.