Europcar

Europcar is Europe's largest car rental company, headquartered Europcar International is Paris. The company was part of the Volkswagen Group, until it was to Eurazeo, a French private equity firm, sold in early 2006. In over 150 countries around 190,000 vehicles are offered at 5300 rental stations. Throughout the company, about 7000 employees. Europcar forms, together with its alliance partner Enterprise Rent -A-Car, the largest car rental company in North America, the world's largest car rental network market with 13,000 stations and a fleet of 1.2 million vehicles since September 2008. In Germany, the company has 578 stations and approximately 43,000 rental car, the Smart to the Mercedes S- class. In addition, vans and small and medium trucks can be rented to 12 tonnes gross weight. The corporate headquarters of Europcar Germany is located in Hamburg - Long Horn. The Managing Director of Europcar International is currently Roland Keppler, the front Europcar Germany has led. His successor as Managing Director of Europcar Germany was Jan -Peter Ellerbrock, formerly " Director of Operations ", which has now been replaced by Reinhard Quante.

History

In 1927, the Urfirma, the motor - traffic - Union KGaA, based in Hamburg. In 1928, the company named in " self-propelled Union Germany eV" to. The business was operated with 150 vehicles at ten stations. Especially Americans, many traveled to the "Roaring Twenties " from Hamburg to Berlin, took advantage of the new service. However, had to be fought for the recognition of foreign driving licenses by German authorities. The self-propelled Union received this support from the transatlantic shipping lines such as Hapag.

Until the outbreak of the Second World War came with 30 stations in 25 cities and a fleet of 700 vehicles, the largest car rental in Germany. Find the cheapest car, a " DKW kingdom class, 600 cm3, convertible sedan or limousine ," cost 1939 per day 4.50 Reichsmark (equivalent to today adjusted for inflation, about 18 euros ), the most expensive, an " eagle, 2500 cc, current form," 7.50 Reichsmark (about 30 euros ).

The last vehicles in the fleet in 1941 confiscated by the Wehrmacht. By the year 1946, the business had reduced to a garage operation with workshop. Since hardly anyone owned a car, the employment concentrated on repairing rubber boots, raincoats and bicycle inner tubes. In 1948, the actual rental business was resumed with two hidden during the war cars and six jeeps held by the U.S. Army.

1955, the car hire at stations was tested. In 1959, the company with the station Hamburg -Fuhlsbüttel was the first German car hire at a international airport. Also a change in the law was obtained: The self-propelled Union led rental trucks in the fleet, which, however, were initially only allowed for commercial customers. Thanks to the car rental soon could also private customers rent the trucks.

In the 1960s, the self-propelled Union joined numerous collaborations with international car hire companies. Within Germany, the station network has grown to nearly 200 locations.

In 1970, the Volkswagen AG became the owner. Since 1971, the company operated under the name "SU interRent " SU stood on for self-drive Union. The fleet consisted of 6,000 vessels that were used on 400 stations. After another name change, the company was called in 1974 " interRent Car Rental GmbH".

1989 merged Founded in 1949, French car hire, Europcar with the German interRent. 50 per cent were in the hands of Volkswagen and the French tourism group Compagnie Internationale des Wagons- Lits, which in turn was taken over by Accor in 1991. New name was now " Europcar interRent Rent A Car ", with green logo.

In 1992, the name change was attracted to " Europcar ". In 1997, Europcar has been certified according to quality standard ISO 9002. In 1999, the Volkswagen AG as the sole shareholder of Europcar was.

In September 2005, Volkswagen AG announced that Europcar should be either sold or taken public. On 9 March 2006 was finally published that Europcar is sold to the French private equity firm Eurazeo. Following approval by the antitrust authorities of the sale in the first half of 2006 was completed.

The end of 2006 took Europcar European activities of Vanguard ( National Car Rental, Alamo Rent A Car) and acquired Keddy and Ultramar. 2007 acquired Europcar Betacar, car rental in the Balearic and Canary Islands.

2008 the company launched mobility services in Beijing and opened by taking over a franchise partner countries own company in Australia and New Zealand. A strategic alliance with "Enterprise Rent-A- Car", a car rental company in North America, improved the global market coverage. Together, the partners are now the world's largest car rental network market with 13,000 stations in 162 countries and a fleet of 1.2 million vehicles. Europcar committed itself to a comprehensive Environmental Charter and received a certification by the renowned Bureau Veritas.

2009 Europcar received the ISO 14001 environmental standard and concluded a partnership with Renault -Nissan to introduce electric cars.

In 2013, the Europcar group led the Inter Rent brand as " international low-cost brand" again. Already 2004-2008 Europcar has had unsuccessfully tried the brand "Inter Rent" to establish itself as a cheap brand on the market. Inter Rent is currently represented in five countries, including in Germany with 8 stations.

In Austria, the company ARAC (Vienna) licensee of Europcar. Arac is a subsidiary of Porsche Bank.

Approvals

Europcar allows for almost all vehicles in Hamburg since the beginning of 2000; in the vehicle registration certificate is registered as a holder address of the company headquarters in Hamburg. Evident are Europcar vehicles on license plate with the format HH xx 7xxx, so for example HH AB 7636th However, also mark with HH xx 8xxx in circulation. Furthermore, a bar code next to the rear license plate and a "D" label is attached at the rear as with many other car rental companies. There are on the small plate, with which the label can be peeled from the carrier film, the printed letters "EC ". New vehicles have license plate holder with the logo Europcar. Old approvals have license plate holder of the insurance company, " AIG - the insurance industry " or the HDI -Gerling Insurance.

Chance of vehicles are also using any other approval in the fleet ( "Local Fleet ").

Since May 2009, there are also vehicles in Mainz (MZ ) and Munich ( M) are allowed.

Sponsoring

The company is sponsoring the cycling team Team Europcar, formerly Bbox Bouygues Télécom.

Carsharing

In Europe, Europcar operates since 2009 in a joint venture with Daimler AG, car2go Europe GmbH and offers under the name of a car2go car-sharing offer. As vehicles exclusively Smart fortwo find it with gasoline or electric motor use. With DriveNow rivals BMW and Sixt operate a similar service, but with far fewer vehicles and significantly fewer sites.