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India`s car rental market was and even till today a largely unorganized market. Car rental in India is often assumed a chauffeur driven vehicle, due to abundant cheap labour, which is otherwise considered a luxury in high income countries.
Self-drive car rental was unheard of In India until 2001 when Hertz launched its licensed operations called Carzonrent, creating a niche. The segment remained a niche until 2013 when Zoomcar launched its operations in Bangalore with a fleet of <10 vehicles, which has now gone past 4,000 as of May 2019.
To know more about Global Car Subscription Market, read our report
The self-drive car rental market in India is majorly driven by the gap in driving license holders(127 Million) and car owners( 22 cars/1000 people in 2019).There is also the case of compact car(<3.6m in length and powered by <1L gas engine) owners who prefer to rent a bigger, safer and powerful vehicle for intercity trips. About 28% of new cars sold in India belong to this segment.
Over past 12 months there has been a growing trend of investment in self-drive car rental operators by car manufacturers. Ford started it in Zoom cars back in 2016, followed by Mahindra in Zoom cars in 2018, Hyundai in Revv in 2018 and now Mahindra again in Zoom cars in 2019.
The self-drive car rental market in India is heavily concentrated in tier-1 cities like Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Till 2016, about 75% of the rental used to happen on weekends, which has now reduced to 64% as of May 2019.
The rental charges typically range from 1,400INR( $20) per day for small cars to 12,000($170) per day for bigger SUVs and luxury cars, with 15-20% variation between weekdays and weekends.
We believe, the self-drive car rental market in India, estimated at < $100 Million in 2023, is massively under-penetrated and there is a very strong growth potential.
The self-drive car rental market size in India is estimated at $XX Million in 2023 and will grow to $YY Million by 2030.
There have been many new entrants in self-drive car rental market in India but the market structure has remained more or less the same. The older entrants like Zoomcar, Drivezy and Revv have consolidated their position, broadened their fleet size and expanded to many cities.
Ola, the market leader in ride hailing market in India has announced that it will enter the self-drive car rental market but only in the luxury and corporate leasing segment.
To know more about ride hailing market in India. Read our On-demand taxi Market in India report
Almost all operators, started operations from 5-6 metro cities and are constantly looking to expand their services to smaller cities and even internationally to attract new set of consumers.
Most of the operators Ex Zoomcar, Myles have now adopted an asset light business model i.e. they source cars from taxi operators, private owners and institutions to improve their margins and reduce their capex and liability.
The cars sourced from private owners via leased program now makes up for 10-13% of total fleet size.
Among the top 3 players ,Drivezy is the most funded but is present in least number of cities
