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Car Rental Coalition

The Car Rental Coalition is an informal alliance of three major mobility companies for the purpose of jointly representing their interest toward the EU: Avis Budget Group, Europcar Mobility Group and Hertz International.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Pietro Fiocchi (Member of the European Parliament) and Rud Pedersen Public Affairs Brussels and Arcadium Lithium PLC

14 Oct 2025 · Tematiche ambientali

Meeting with Pascal Canfin (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Oct 2025 · Verdissement des flottes

Meeting with Jan-Christoph Oetjen (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Oct 2025 · Greening of Corporate Fleets

Meeting with Jean-Louis Colson (Head of Unit Mobility and Transport)

1 Oct 2025 · Discussion on a possible initiative of the Commission on cross-border car rentals.

Response to Clean corporate vehicles

3 Sept 2025

The Car Rental Coalition (Avis Budget Group and Hertz International) underlines that, as industry leaders, our companies are already at the forefront of greening road transport, including by contributing to the reduction of car ownership and emission and the decrease of emissions via the regular renewal of fleets, and by being a substantial contributor to the second-hand EV market. Therefore, while we overall support proposals incentivising the greening of fleets, the Car Rental Coalition reiterates the importance of properly considering realities on the ground, as well as making a distinction between traditional corporate fleets (i.e. vehicles made available by a company to its employees) and car rental fleets (i.e. vehicles rented out to customers), given the fact that for car rental companies our vehicles are working assets. Car rental customer demand for EVs remains low, even in markets with high EV use. Car rental customers are much more sensitive to the lack of charging infrastructure than traditional corporate fleet users: indeed, the latter can usually charge their EVs at the workplace or at home. Conversely, car rental users are typically travelling for business or leisure, so attempting to charge an EV in a foreign country means relying on public infrastructure, and therefore running into a language barrier and other interoperability issues. Many customers have this range anxiety in mind when looking to rent a car, and prefer to rent an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle as a result. If car rental companies were to dramatically increase their EV offer, customer demand would most likely not follow, resulting in EVs sitting idle in car parks and extremely detrimental consequences for car rental companies. In parallel, it is worth noting that most car rentals take place at key transport hubs like airports and train stations; yet no EU legislation makes it compulsory for these actors to provide charging infrastructure (despite the Commissions stated commitment earlier this year to develop said infrastructure at airports). Finally, the imposition of high targets on car rentals fleets would be damaging to both the car rental sector and consumer choice: in our view, consumers should be entitled to choose an ICE vehicle over an EV if they have concerns about charging infrastructure (which is being rolled out rather slowly in many of the regions where we conduct a significant amount of our business). Car rental companies purchases of EVs, which are typically more expensive, will naturally follow the electrification of the wider passenger car fleet, in line with the availability of a good range of EVs in all vehicle segments and expected decreases in EV prices as production numbers go up, and as charging infrastructure becomes more widespread and easier to use. Most importantly it will go hand in hand with greater customer demand for EVs as people grow more comfortable with them, even in new surroundings. In light of these points, we stress that this initiative should acknowledge the specificities of the car rental sector, and how our fleets differ from leasing or company cars. In addition, in our view, it is vital to focus on how to boost consumer trust in EVs and related demand, as well as using fiscal incentives to advance electromobility and ensure alignment between policy objectives and the deployment of EV infrastructure. Should such an initiative fail to address these concerns, it would have a disproportionate and highly detrimental impact on car rental companies forced to buy expensive EVs in advance of the customer demand for them.
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Meeting with Petra Nemeckova (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera Rodríguez)

27 Jun 2025 · Upcoming proposal on greening corporate fleets.

Meeting with Astrid Dentler (Cabinet of Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra), Olivia Gippner (Cabinet of Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra)

27 Feb 2025 · Greening Corporate Fleets

Meeting with Jean-Louis Colson (Head of Unit Mobility and Transport) and Europcar Mobility Group and Hertz Europe Limited

4 Feb 2025 · Discussion on a possible initiative of the Commission on cross-border car rentals.

Meeting with Anna Panagopoulou (Cabinet of Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas)

4 Feb 2025 · Introductory meeting, exchange of ideas

Meeting with Sanna Laaksonen (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen), Silvia Bartolini (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen)

4 Feb 2025 · Car Rental Coalition’s view on Commission initiatives

Response to Single Market Strategy 2025

24 Jan 2025

The Car Rental Coalition (Hertz, Europcar, Avis Budget Group) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the forthcoming Single Market Strategy 2025, notably with regards to current shortcomings for the car rental sector. As pointed out by Enrico Letta in his Report on the Future of the Single Market, significant hurdles also prevent passenger car rental service providers from operating across national borders at scale. Due to different vehicle taxation in EU countries, providers of such services do not allow a vehicle registered in one country to be rented in another country. If a rented vehicle crosses an internal border, the concerned service provider returns it to the home country at its expense. The EU must remove existing barriers by, for example, establishing a system allowing a longer period of use of the vehicle in the second country without a need for registration in that country, in order to make cross-border rental more appealing. These views were also echoed by Commissioner Tzitzikostas in his confirmation hearing. We agree with this assessment, as well as noting that car rental vehicles are typically very new (in most cases, they remain in our fleets for 6-9 months, until they are bought back by the manufacturers or sold in second-hand markets, or for 12-18 months for EVs before being sold in second-hand markets). This relatively short ownership period makes it important (for both car rental companies and customers) to use fleets as efficiently as possible, including by moving them swiftly across markets to meet varying levels of customer demand. Despite this, our ability to do so is greatly limited by strict and fragmented vehicle registration rules across Europe, in light of the continued absence of any framework at EU level. Along the same lines, it is worth noting that, in the context of the 2020 Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy, the Commission committed to present measures to encourage cross-border car rentals by 2022: however, this initiative has been delayed and incipient Commission work on this topic only started two years after (including by launching a public consultation in H2 2024). Against this background and reiterating our commitment to supporting EU ambitions for green, smart and seamless mobility, we call on the Commission to address existing shortcomings when it comes to cross-border car rentals. Consequently, we call for an EU-wide harmonisation of vehicle registration rules, which would create a vast reduction in the ongoing inefficiencies that contradict the spirit of the EU Single Market. For further details, please find attached our position paper on harmonisation of vehicle registration rules
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Meeting with Filip Alexandru Negreanu Arboreanu (Cabinet of Commissioner Adina Vălean)

21 Jun 2023 · Greening corporate fleets

Meeting with Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

20 Jun 2023 · Cross border traffic offenses

Meeting with Joan Canton (Cabinet of Commissioner Thierry Breton)

15 Jun 2023 · will follow

Meeting with Karima Delli (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and European Transport Safety Council and

1 Jun 2023 · Driving Licence Directive

Meeting with Caroline Boeshertz (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

11 May 2023 · access to vehicle data

Meeting with Filip Alexandru Negreanu Arboreanu (Cabinet of Commissioner Adina Vălean)

20 Apr 2023 · Greening corporate fleets

Meeting with Simon Genevaz (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager), Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

18 Apr 2023 · Access to in-vehicle data