Self-drive rental car industry has witness a remarkable attention among the young generation in last 4 years. The year 2013 transformed the rental car industry trend to self-drive rental cars in India. Some of the well-known players are Zoomcar, Myles, Voler, MiCar, Revv, Rentomojo, JustRide, Avis, Selfdrive.in and Carzonrent in the Indian market. Today, self-drive cars are available in most of the metropolitan cities of India. Straightaway, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai are the major revenue source. Major portion of this industry is still unorganized in India. Many companies are changing the old age style of car rental industry with chauffer to self-drive. This industry had grown remarkably and has many more mile-stones to achieve.
Market Size of Self-drive cars
Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra and Goa holds a larger revenue share in car rental industry. These states also witnessed a significant growth in renting self-drive cars. Most of the companies are already offering their services in these states. Every player in this industry has a fleet of cars ranging from Tata Nano to high-end luxury cars like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. Tariff prices starts from as low as Rs. 30 per hour (Tata Nano) to Rs. 300 per hour for luxury cars. In addition, cars are available on rent with an option to hire on hourly basis or daily basis. Likewise, one can also hire self-drive cars for weeks or even months.
Major states
1. Karnataka
Karnataka has proved to be one of the best location for car rental industry in India. Bangalore gave birth to the concept of self-drive rental car industry with Zoomcar being the biggest player. Almost every company in this industry offer its services in Bangalore. Many service providers also started to offer 2-wheelers on rent in Bangalore. Additionally, there are more than 25 locations to pick self-drive cars in Bangalore. Moreover, one can also get the car delivered and picked from their door-step. There is a huge demand in Bangalore, companies should also offer drivers on demand to raise the business further. 2-wheelers on rent also experienced a noticeable growth. Mangalore could be the next destination for many companies in Karnataka. Mysore, Ooty and Coorg are the major destinations from Bangalore. Renting self-drive cars on one-way from Bangalore could further attract many travellers.
2. Haryana/Delhi (NCR)
Haryana being an adjacent state with India’s capital Delhi has many benefits. Most developed city in NCR is Gurgaon which enjoys enormous growth in car renting industry. Haryana is the second popular state for self-drive rental companies like Zoomcar. Such a great popularity gave birth to many companies in self-drive rental domain in Delhi. Carzonrent (Myles), Voler, Revv are some of the well-known Delhi based self-drive rental companies. These companies enjoy the benefit to large geographical area including Gurgaon, Noida and Delhi. Faridabad is also connected to NCR but with little more development of this sector in Faridabad could result better. Most popular destination from NCR is Chandigarh. Zoomcar started offering one-way service between NCR and Chandigarh few months back. Offering similar services by other companies could raise the competition further. There is still a need to strong their hands in outer portion of NCR naming Greater-Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad.
3. Maharashtra
Maharashtra has a great potential for any industry in any sector with Mumbai and Pune serving the best. Self-drive rental industry is no different in Maharashtra. With more than 15 companies serving its services has a good hold in Mumbai, Pune and Chinchwad. Chinchwad adjacent to Pune serve best for many self-drive rental companies. Chinchwad is the most popular and most revenue making town for self-drive rental companies in India. 2-wheelers on rent also shown a remarkable growth in Mumbai and Pune. Package comprising of requirements for 1 or 2 day to Lonavala, Shirdi, Mahabaleshwar, Lavasa and other popular destination from Mumbai and Pune could attract more customers.
4. Gujarat
Gujarat is the state which never disappoint any industry to start its business. Ahmedabad gave a great response and attraction in hiring self-drive cars on rent. Most of the matured companies are already offering its services in Gujarat. Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot also showed a great interest in renting self-drive cars. Ahmedabad is well connected with Mumbai and Pune and large number of people prefer to travel by road. Packages linking Ahmedabad with Pune and Mumbai could be a better option for many.
5. Tamil Nadu
Chennai also witnessed a tremendous growth in car rental industry and brought a positive change to rent a self-drive cars. Young generation of age up to 35-40 year and college students showed a visible interest. Currently most of the companies in only in Chennai. But Coimbatore, Madurai and Vellore are likely to be the next market in Tamil Nadu. Vellore and Chennai has large number of students as self-drive rental companies’ customers. Companies should attract students to elevate the business.
Future scope
With large number of competitor present all over India, the market space witness a remarkable growth. Car rental industry is still unorganized in most of the parts of India. Kolkata and Hyderabad will be next big market for matured players in this industry. Likewise, matured players should also offer drivers on demand to target senior citizens. Most of the companies has a huge amount as security deposit. Minimizing the amount of security deposit could shift many customers. Additionally, college students often opt self-drive cars on rent for weekend gateways. Many companies’ policies are diverging them to other service providers. In addition, packages to major destinations would be the next step in self-drive rental car industry.
Furthermore, this is just an additional or temporary service which is nowhere focused to change the new car buyers mind. This industry is not an alarming industry for automobile industry. We hope to see the development of self-drive rental car industry in Tier-II cities also and to organize the largely unorganized sector in India.