Struggling Car Rental Businesses Face Reinvention or Recession: Europcar Launches a Monthly Subscription for Individuals in Spain

THE car rental business has been a heavily affected sector by the coronavirus crisis as mobility between provinces has been limited and tourism has come to a standstill, they now face an important choice which, to either face a hard recession or reinvent themselves.

Europcar has been the first car rental service to do the latter and they have announced the launch of a monthly car rental subscription for individual use. The company has tried to find an alternative source of income as they have lost their main customer niche, which is tourism.

Taking into account the government’s recommendation to avoid public transport, Europcar has launched a bonus service.

This operation aims to embody a type of monthly transport subscription for commuters now that public transport is no longer the safer, nor recommended option for travel. These transport subscriptions will be divided into medium distance and long-distance categories.

The CEO of Europcar Mobility Group in Spain explained his vision: “An individual vehicle is going to be essential in the return towards normalcy that we desire so greatly. With this subscription we want to make life a little easier for workers who normally move on public transport and who now want to maintain a controlled monthly expense, by minimising the risks with a vehicle that only they will use and that is subjected to the most strict hygiene measures.”

The company stresses that users will not have to worry about the safety of vehicles, since they all comply with the cleaning and hygiene recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Spanish authorities.