Number of the Day
Rental Car Companies’ Pandemic Comeback, by the Numbers
Demand for used cars and rental cars collapsed after Covid-19 hit. Suddenly, business is booming again.
$45 million: That’s the profit earned by rental car company Avis Budget Group in the third quarter of 2020, following a loss of $481 million in the second quarter, per the Wall Street Journal.
Rental car companies have seen their fortunes swing wildly during the pandemic: While quarantines and lockdowns initially led to a collapse in travel, the demand for cars began to surge as urbanites looked for a means of escape from cities and tight quarters. This led to more demand for car rentals as well as rising prices on the used car market, which also benefits rental car companies that sell off their older inventory. Avis sold 75,000 cars from its fleet during the quarter, a record for the company.
The immediate collapse, followed by a sharp increase in demand, mirrors what Airbnb witnessed during the pandemic, too, as people who initially quarantined at home began looking for remote work getaways within driving distance.
The timing of the turnaround could have been better for Hertz, however; it racked up more than $24 billion in debt and then filed for…
