春节假期带动租车市场

The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planner, estimates the population will make some 3.4 billion trips during Spring Festival using cars, buses, trains, airplanes and ships.

Comparing to other transportation, some people choose to travel by renting a car during the annual travel peak. And the new policy that exempts drivers from expressway toll fees during national holidays adds to the attraction of renting a car.

One customer says he has rented a car from February the 4th to the 12th, and it costs him about 3000 yuan.

China Auto Rental in Beijing, one of the nation's biggest in 66 cities, is reporting that 95 percent of its inventory has already been booked for the period.

The average cost for a compact car at China Auto Rental is 275 yuan a day. Combined with 40 yuan a day for insurance, a commission of about 30 yuan for each deal and gasoline, the total spending for the seven-day Spring Festival is about 3,000 yuan, an affordable price for many.

Here is Yang Yanying, vice president of the China Auto Rental in Beijing.

"The average occupancy rate of our car rental across the country has reached about 60 percent. In some cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Sanya, the number has surpassed 70 percent. We estimate that the nationwide occupancy rate of our car rental will be as high as 90 percent during the Spring Festival, and the number can be 100 percent in some big cities."

Like China Auto Rental, many other car rental companies have also seen their business booming for the Spring Festival travel peak. Zhang Yan, customer service employee of another car rental company in Beijing says they have increased their storage for the increasing demand in the market.

"To prepare for the peak season during the coming Spring Festival, we have added 1000 cars for rental. Therefore, we have about 6000 cars in total, among which about 3800 cars have already been booked up to now."

Media reports rental surge is not limited to Spring Festival. The overall industry is now in the fast lane.

According to a report by Germany's Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, China's auto rental market is projected to grow 25 percent a year at least until 2015.

Its statistics show that China's car rental industry generated some 20 billion yuan or 3.2 billion US dollars in total revenues in 2011. The figure is expected to reach 39 billion yuan in 2015.
The momentum is attracting global players looking for a new profit stream amid economically challenging times.

For CRI, I am Wang Wei.