Car sharing has increased in price - Newspaper Kommersant No. 13 (7458) dated 01/25/2023

Car sharing has increased in price - Newspaper Kommersant No. 13 (7458) dated 01/25/2023



The increase in the cost of purchasing and servicing cars due to Western sanctions and the crisis led to an increase in the average check in car sharing services by 28% last year. Market participants do not expect price cuts for car rental services this year either. They also predict an increase in the share of Chinese cars in the fleet of services, which already reaches 20-25%.

As follows from the calculations of the CloudPayments service, in 2022, the average check for a trip on carsharing increased by 28% year-on-year, to 331 rubles, and in general, the online turnover of the segment increased by 7%. At the same time, according to analysts, the number of transactions decreased by 20% year-on-year. BelkaCar talks about an increase in the average check by about 5% in recent years and attributes this to an increase in the duration of the lease in the service and a change in the structure of the fleet.

An increase in the average bill in 2022 indicates an increase in the cost of car rental services due to an increase in the cost of servicing the car fleet by car sharing operators, says CloudPayments CEO Tatyana Glazacheva. So, on average, over the year, spare parts have risen in price by 30%, but “by the end of 2022, their cost has leveled off,” Russian Automotive Market Research (NAPI) estimated for the insurance basket for cars. Technology, media and telecommunications sector analyst Vladimir Bespalov also talks about the growing costs of car sharing services and the rise in car prices.

Sergey Udalov from Avtostat notes that in the context of a shortage of budget cars on the market and the choice of Chinese cars in the SUV segment by car sharing services, the price is partly rising due to a change in the category of cars. According to Rosstat, new passenger cars of foreign brands have risen in price by almost 40% in 2022.

Car sharing services surveyed by Kommersant note an increase in demand for car rental in 2022. Delimobil says that the number of registered users increased by 19% year-on-year. Demand growth reached up to 30% in some months compared to 2021, BelkaCar adds. Some users who used to drive their own car and rent a car are completely switching to carsharing, explains Delimobil. In turn, Eduard Mingazhev, General Director of Citydrive, believes that the growth in demand for car rental was also affected by the expansion of the coverage area of ​​the service in a number of cities.

At the same time, in 2022, the departure of large automakers from the country, as well as the complicated logistics of supplies, were reflected in the car sharing market, BelkaCar says. Due to geopolitical problems, carsharing services have difficulties with purchases and renewal of the fleet, and the reorientation of services to the Chinese car market has played a significant role in the market, says Yuri Nikolaev, publisher of Truesharing.ru. Major market players did not provide specific figures for the growth in the share of Chinese cars. According to Yuri Nikolaev, today it can reach 20-25% of the total fleet of Russian services.

In general, the Delimobil car fleet has been replenished by 1,000 cars over the past year. Citydrive is talking about an increase in the number of cars by more than 30% due to Chinese Geely, Haval, Chery and JAC, as well as European brands.

Vladimir Bespalov believes that against the backdrop of limited supply, the share of Chinese cars in the structure of car rental services this year will continue to grow, while in the medium term, electric cars may also gain popularity. He does not expect a reduction in car sharing rates this year.

The term of preferential parking permits for foreign cars purchased before the termination of supplies has not yet expired, so the companies will continue to operate cars of European brands, says Yuri Nikolaev. At the same time, the expert suggests, breakthrough product solutions or the appearance of car sharing services for cars from the Western, Japanese or Korean markets in the fleets should not be expected at least until the end of hostilities in Ukraine.

Alina Savitskaya, Olga Nikitina



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