Just as in the first half of the year, in the third quarter of the current year, new car sales in Poland remained high, at levels known before the pandemic. However, sales growth dynamics were not as high as in the first months of the year, indicating that the market is beginning to stabilize. According to data from the third quarter published by the Polish Union of Vehicle Rental and Leasing (PZWLP), of almost 84,000 new passenger cars purchased in Poland by companies during this period, more than ¼ were in long-term rental. The long-term car rental market, based on the portfolio size of companies associated with PZWLP, grew in the third quarter by 7.6% compared to the same period last year. The Rent a Car sector (car rentals) also grew according to organizational data, increasing by 4.4% year on year.
Data after the third quarter confirm a positive trend that has been maintained since the beginning of the year. The automotive market in our country is in good health, car sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, the dynamics of these sales growth are beginning to decrease. Focusing exclusively on the corporate and institutional client sector, which has been the main driver of the Polish automotive market for years, in the third quarter of 2024, companies purchased 3.5% more new passenger cars than in the same period a year earlier. For comparison, in the first half of the year, this growth exceeded 10% year on year. This indicates a gradual stabilization of the market at the already achieved level. Although sales volumes remain high, the rate of growth is increasingly slowing.
Sales dynamics in the third quarter differed in terms of the financing form chosen by entrepreneurs. The highest value, i.e., a growth of 4.2% compared to the same period last year, was recorded for credit, classic leasing, and purchases from own resources combined. As for new cars purchased in long-term rental, according to PZWLP data, the growth in the third quarter of 2024 reached 1.4% year on year.
“What sets long-term rental apart from the market and other forms of car financing in Poland is primarily high stability and relatively strong resistance to external factors, including macroeconomic ones,” said Piotr Wróbel, Board Member of PZWLP. “The level of car sales in long-term rental in our country has been consistently increasing for many years, but is not subject to significant and rapid fluctuations, both plus and minus, caused by, for example, regulatory changes, rising car prices, or restrictions on the availability of new vehicles. This is characteristic of new services when the market is in the phase of saturation with such solutions. Long-term car rental is still a relatively young service in Poland, and expansion and acquisition of new market areas are still visible, primarily in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, as well as in the public sector.”
In the third quarter, companies and entrepreneurs in Poland acquired almost 84,000 (83,800) new passenger cars. According to published PZWLP data, more than every fourth (26.1%) car purchased during this time was in long-term rental. The industry purchased 21,900 new cars in the third quarter for the services it offers.
The long-term car rental market in Poland, that is, the total number of cars in this service in our country, continues to grow. At the end of the third quarter, the development pace (increase in the total fleet of vehicles) was 7.6% year on year.
“The dynamics of the development of the long-term car rental market in Poland remain at a good, high level,” said Robert Antczak, President of the PZWLP Board. “As such, the pace of development this year is slightly slower than about a year and a half ago when double-digit values were recorded. However, growth over a year by 7.6% at the size of the long-term car rental market in Poland estimated at over 300,000 vehicles, is, in our opinion, a satisfactory result. Especially as we continue to operate in a difficult economic situation.
PZWLP data after the third quarter confirm that the transformation of drives used in cars in long-term rental is an incontrovertible fact. Moreover, it is progressing relatively quickly. By the end of September 2024, cars equipped with petrol engines were the most widely represented, accounting for 54.4% of the total, and their percentage increased by 0.6pp over the year. The decrease in the share of Diesel remained dynamic, at a whopping 3.6pp over the year, vehicles equipped with high-pressure drive units represented just over 30% (31.8% at the end of the third quarter). Electric drives, a variety of hybrids, and fully electric cars, however, are on the increase. Such vehicles represented 13.8% of the total fleet in long-term rental in Poland, indicating an increase of 3pp over the course of the year. In addition, the share of fully electrical cars (BEV), which at the end of September accounted for 3.2% of the total, increased by 1.1pp over the year.
The average carbon dioxide emissions of new passenger cars purchased by the long-term rental industry in the third quarter of 2024 were 13.6 g/km and 10.4% lower than a year earlier, and were 116.8 g/km. For vans, the average emissions were 127.3 g/km, 23.6% and 24.3 g/km higher compared to the same period in 2023.
In the over 268 thousand fleet of cars in long-term rental of companies belonging to PZWLP, among the most popular models at the end of September 2024 were: Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, Kia Ceed, and Hyundai i30.
Experts warn: Excluding entrepreneurs from the planned “My Electric 2.0” program seriously jeopardizes further development of electromobility in Poland.
PZWLP experts, as well as those of many other automotive market organizations in Poland, point out that the pace of development of electromobility in our country may soon significantly decrease due to plans to exclude companies and entrepreneurs, regardless of the financing type, from entities that can benefit from subsidies for electric cars as part of the Government’s “My Electric 2.0” program.
Enterprises form the foundation of the electric vehicle market in Poland. PZPM data based on CEPiK shows that in Q1-Q3 2024, 87% of new electric passenger cars were registered by companies, including 74% by leasing and long-term rental entities. Omitting this group in the subsidy program not only weakens the market dynamics but also risks not using the program’s potential and wasting the allocated resources. PZWLP, together with ZPL (Polish Leasing Association), the Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, and the Nationwide Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, appealed to the Polish government and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management on this matter.
Rent a Car market grown by 4.4% after the third quarter
Along with third-quarter data, PZWLP also published information about the Rent a Car (car rental) market in Poland. According to them, the Rent a Car industry recorded a growth of 4.4% year on year.
“The development dynamics noted after the third quarter is not high, but what we are happy about is that it is higher than at the end of the half-year when it was just over 1%,” says Tomasz Kapelko, a member of the PZWLP Board. “We must remember that the Rent a Car industry, unlike long-term rental, is very susceptible to macroeconomic phenomena and the economic environment. The customer structure is also different, in the case of rentals we deal with both large and medium-sized companies, as well as small entrepreneurs and individual customers. The difficult economic situation negatively affects the purchasing decisions of companies and individuals, which also translates into the use of Rent a Car services, and thus primarily short-term car rentals. Therefore, rental companies have to adjust the size of their fleet to the prevailing business conditions. In this situation, over 4% growth is good news. ”
The Rent a Car industry is currently represented in the PZWLP by seven large, networked, Polish and international car rentals, whose total fleet* in short-term rental services (1-30 days) and medium-term (1 month – 2 years) was over 20,000 cars at the end of the third quarter of 2024.
* – without Sixt Rent a Car Poland / Eurorent Sp. z o.o. fleet.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/rynek-motoryzacyjny-stabilizuje-sie-wynajem-dlugoterminowy-i-rent-a-car-rosna-mimo-wyzwan-67515
