Long-term rental gets off to a good start

'There was clearly an expectation on the part of customers,' Stanisci continues, 'however, between March and April the car list request and negotiation activity resumed at a good level. But it is clear that the fruits will be seen in the coming months. In this first part of the year, for those customers who have asked us, we have worked with contract extensions, which we consider to be a real product'. Ayvens' focus this year is 'getting the new structure up to speed; in fact it is only the third month that we are working as one entity. From an operational and process point of view everything has gone well, without any kind of interruption'.

Arval, another non-captive big company, according to its managing director, Dario Casiraghi, continues to grow at the fleet level in an organic and structured manner and expects the same trend in the coming months. On the registration side it is more or less in line with last year: there are small variations that are more seasonal than related to recurring or new phenomena. On the corporate side, there was a slowdown due to uncertainty about the new regulations. While retail and individuals performed well.

"We are focusing,' Casiraghi says, 'on proactivity in two dimensions: the consultancy dimension to support customers in defining their mobility policy and towards energy transition, and the operational dimension to increase our ability to provide a proactive service to customers. On the target side, we also want to continue to grow in segments other than corporate, which today account for 50% of our production. With regard to products related to energy transition, we continue to have a good grip on hybrids and a slightly higher percentage of the market on electrics with associated products that are easy to access and use. At the same time, we continue to grow and invest in Release and Flex products to ensure that they are increasingly appreciated in a multidimensional mobility sphere that we place at the heart of our distribution strategy.

According to the two Ayvens and Arval managers interviewed, there is no sign of a partial return to the ownership regime as a result of the new fringe benefit regulations.

More than on fleet volumes, the new legislation will have an impact on the fuel mix of long-term rental vehicles, because compared to the previous one, as is well known, it tends to fiscally privilege plug-ins and electrics and penalise all others. Already the numbers of long-term rental car registrations in the first four months of the year, according to Dataforce data, show significant evidence. Plug-in registrations are up 42 per cent to 8 per cent share (1.5 points higher than in 2024), electrics are up 86 per cent to 7 per cent. Full hybrids increased by 2% (9% share). While petrol and mhev volumes increase by 33% to 48% share. Finally, diesels and mhevs drop in both numbers (-13%) and share (-9%) although they still account for almost a third of registrations.

The 16% growth in long-term rental registrations is mainly due to the captive companies, including Leasys, which registered 36 thousand units (+130%) compared to the previous year (16 thousand), a result on which, as Andrea Pertica, the company's general manager, states, was certainly influenced mainly by the Consip tender (15 thousand vehicles), but also by the excellent performance of the indirect dealer and broker channels.

Volkswagen Leasing also stands out among the captives, having registered almost 26,000 cars in the first four months, an increase of 40%. Numbers that, according to Giovanni Tauro, the company's marketing director, confirm the result of 37% in 2024. "We are growing both in the corporate and private sectors, reaping the benefits of much training and process improvement on the dealer network. The company has recently launched Pay X Use Solution, and is preparing to introduce 2 nd Life Solution, the long-term rental formula designed to accompany cars in their second life cycle.

Interest in small customers is strong. This is also confirmed by the entry into the field of Agos Renting, which proposes a dealer-centric model that entrusts customer management entirely to dealers. According to Valerio Papale, the company's managing director, 'initial feedback confirms that we are on the right track: to offer a dealer experience that is simple, fluid, and perfectly aligned to partners' expectations. Customers tell us that they have been able to access their rental quickly, with a streamlined and uncomplicated process. Agos Renting's goal is to make rental accessible, immediate and fully integrated into the purchase process, enhancing the role of the dealer and improving the experience.