China's first electric car rental store starts

On the 8th, the country's first electric car rental franchise store operated by Yili Car Rental Co., Ltd., a nationwide chain of car rental brands, was formally launched in Jiading, Shanghai. When Cai Lihong, Senior Vice President of Car Rental, said in an exclusive interview with Netease Automobile, the first batch of electric vehicle rental will be put on 50 vehicles, and 200 electric vehicles will be put into operation by the end of this year. Electric car leasing or will become an ice-breaking move to truly market electric vehicles.

It is understood that this year even if Tesla is in the electric car field, it is difficult to hide the overall downturn in this industry. At the end of last year, the American battery giant A123 went bankrupt. At the beginning of this year, the U.S. government announced that it would give up its goal of achieving 1 million electric vehicle sales by 2015. It seems that this year is a year of “Waterloo” for electric vehicles. Sure enough, then the other two American electric cars The giants Fisker and Coda have bankruptcy. The new energy automobile industry in other countries has also fallen into a dilemma. It is difficult to achieve the goal of selling 500,000 electric vehicles in 2015 in China.

In the face of this situation, electric cars that represent the future automotive industry need more innovative modes and concepts to promote it. Cai Lihong said that many people are currently interested in electric vehicles, but not many people really buy cars. Taking Gaozhan Automobile, the first domestic electric vehicle franchise store, as an example, the total sales volume in the past year will be about 300 units. Mainly consumers are not familiar with electric vehicles. Whether it is driving or usual maintenance, depreciation, etc., electric vehicles are still in the preheat stage. Leasing is an effective model that quickly brings consumers closer to electric vehicles.

It is reported that the rental process of electric cars is similar to that of traditional cars, and bookings can be made through the Internet or by telephone. The discounted experiential price for a rental electric car is 149 yuan per day, which includes handling fees and insurance premiums, which is slightly higher than the traditional car rental price (in the case of Chevrolet Cruze, the daily rental price is only 115 yuan). At the same time, electric cars are only used in the Shanghai area, and they do not support off-site and return vehicles from different locations. At the scene, Netease Motor also found that there is only one type of vehicle available for lease, that is, SAIC E50.

However, Cai Lihong said that these are only measures taken at the initial stage of the project. In the next step, once the rental car will also launch a time-share lease model, which can be leased on an hourly basis, which can significantly reduce the cost of the lease; at the same time, in addition to Jiading’s first electric car franchise store, there will be two more during the year. The store opened, and two stores in the city will also launch the business. By then, the swapping of different stores will no longer be a problem. Once this model is proven feasible, we will replicate it nationwide.

Regarding the single problem of vehicles, Cai Lihong said that in the project preparation process, considering both the subsidy and the production capacity, the E50 has been comprehensively selected. In the next step, based on the actual operation of the market, it will consider buying more models.

As far as consumers are concerned about charging, it is understood that a car rental store currently only provides slow charging service, and it is estimated that it will take 6-8 hours from empty air to full power. However, users do not need to pay charging fees for charging at designated stores in the early stages, and they do not need to fully charge the batteries when they return the car. In addition, unauthorized charging is not allowed due to operational safety.

When talking about the development prospects, Cai Lihong said that as soon as the bold attempt of renting a car is predictable in the future, it will encounter many difficulties and challenges. In the initial stage, it will mainly focus on industrial penetration and accumulation of users, and plans to achieve revenue and expenditure in 3 years. Flat.