- Young whippersnappers may not remember that you don’t always need to take out a loan to rent a car for the weekend. Fortunately, after the pandemic years, prices are dropping, and there are even deals to be had.
- Signs that the rental car industry is turning around can be found in recent expansion announcements, both about new cars being added to fleets and more rental counters in more locations.
- We’ve got some deals from Sixt, Hertz and Avis in case you’re looking for temporary wheels soon.
The rental car world is shifting back to normal, sort of. The past few years have introduced us to a slew of pandemic-influenced weirdness and incredibly high prices. Remember when it cost $200 a day to rent a car or that unusual U-Haul life hack? But now rental car prices are coming back down to earth, and some companies are back to offering deals on your temporary wheels.
EVs, luxury cars entering the fleet
One way to see how things are looking up is recent news about growing capacity. For example, Hertz announced this week that it will add 2,100 electric vehicles to its Houston fleet, nearly tripling the number of EVs available in the area. Hertz is also building a new fast charging hub at Houston Hobby Airport. So far this year, Sixt has announced a number of new North American locations, including Washington, DC, Pittsburgh and Toronto, and said it will announce further expansion plans later this year. In February, peer-to-peer car-sharing service Turo said it was adjusting its maps of where it expects to see growing demand for vacation rentals for its vehicles, with the Carolina coast predicted to be one such hotspot in 2023. be.
The revival is also taking place globally, with Dubai’s luxury car rentals, for example, “skyrocketing”. Vietnamese conglomerate VinGroup, which owns new EV brand VinFast, announced earlier this month that it has formed a new joint stock company called GSM (which stands for Green Smart Mobility) that will focus on renting out VinFast EVs as well as renting VinFast’s scooters and operating a taxi service. As you might guess, with all this revived activity, there are now deals to be had if you need to rent a car soon. Here are a few options that might suit your plans.
Some offers
Sixt is offering midweek and regional offers, as well as discounts on luxury vehicles at all its locations until the end of June. The midweek deal – up to 30 per cent off – is for anyone who starts their rental on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday and ends by Thursday. Or you can choose to get up to 25 percent discount on the cost of a rental of a premium or luxury vehicle or one from the “extraordinary” category. Some local Sixt offices are also offering deals up to 25 percent off. None of these Sixt offers are available between April 2nd and 22nd, also known as the best Spring Break travel weeks.
Avis doesn’t currently have as many deals as Sixt, but if you spend $175 or more on a rental that lasts three days or more, you can get $15 off.
If you need a car for a week or longer, Hertz offers a free day if you rent for five days. The company also offers a discount of up to 30 percent on your rental if you choose to drive an EV. It’s probably worth tuning in.
Contributing Editor
Sebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk and other outlets. His first green car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been following the shift away from petrol-powered vehicles and discovering the new technology’s importance not only to the car industry, but to the world as a whole. . Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV.
