The global shortage in semiconductors is becoming a “serious issue” for the vehicle rental industry, with new cars and vans in short supply.
New car registrations fell by 22% in August as a result of the chip shortage, the lowest performance for the month since 2013, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
End-user fleets are facing long lead times for new vehicles and have seen some safety specifications removed such as lane departure warning and rear parking sensors.
Ron Santiago, managing director of Europcar Mobility Group UK, says that thanks, in part, to preparations made for Brexit, vehicle supply was largely unaffected at the beginning of the year.
“Manufacturers brought vehicles into the UK, because they didn’t know what was going to happen (when it left the EU),” he said.
That additional stock may have initially helped soften the blow of the semiconductor shortage, but Europcar, like other vehicle rental and leasing companies, is now facing longer lead times for replacement vehicles.
“We’re seeing cancellations of orders from many manufacturers,” said Santiago. “That’s difficult, because at the same time we’re trying to sell vehicles to maximise the residual values in the market.
“We’re having to sell less than what we would have liked, because we’re not getting the new supply.”
The business has managed that lack of new vehicle availability by extending some existing contracts but expects supply to the industry to remain constrained into next year.
“That means it’s very difficult to predict how much fleet growth we can achieve in 2022, because our fleet size is nowhere near where it was in 2019.
“As things open up, international travel starts to come again, we need to increase our fleet size, but it’s hard to predict how many vehicles we’re going to get.”
