In 2018, Europcar Mobility Group generated revenues of 2.9 million euros ($3.2 million) up 22% at constant exchange rates compared with 2017. On a pro-forma basis, i.e. at constant exchange rates and including the 2017 performance of Goldcar, Europcar Denmark, and Buchbinder, the Group revenues grew by 3.4%.

This significant increase in Group revenues was the result of positive growth across all the Group’s key markets and in all of its three major business units with cars growing by 9.4%, vans & trucks growing by 29%, and low cost growing by 200%. On a pro-forma basis, these three major business units grew their revenues by respectively 2.2%, 8.4% and 2.9%.

The number of rental days reached a new record of 87.7 million in 2018, up 27% versus 2017. On a pro-forma basis, growth in rental days was 3.4% for the Group spread across all its key business units.

Net income

In 2018, the Group posted a net profit of 139 million euros ($157 million), up 128% compared to last year’s net profit of 61 million euros ($69 million) in 2017. This is mostly due to the impact of the Group’s strong increase in adjusted Corporate EBITDA over the period as well as the one off gain generated from the sale of the company’s stake in car2go.

Operational Highlights

Following the Group’s investment into the low cost segment, 60% of the Group’s rental revenue in 2018 was generated in the leisure segment, versus 56% in 2017, which acted as the main engine of growth during the period, with the Group’s corporate business being responsible for the remaining 40%.

In 2018, the Group has made significant progress on two of its key operating metrics: fleet utilization and fleet cost per unit. The Group delivered a solid performance in terms of fleet financial utilization with an increase in its BU cars but a decrease in its BU vans & trucks due to the integration of Buchbinder. Overall, at the Group level, financial fleet utilization reached 76.1% in 2018 and decreased by 30 basis points versus 2017 but actually increased by 10 basis points on a proforma basis i.e. without the negative impact of Buchbinder. 

The Group reduced its fleet cost per unit per month significantly from 243 euros ($275) in 2017 to 226 euros ($256) in 2018 thanks to a better damage recovery ratio and lower reconditioning costs across the Group, coupled with a positive impact from recent acquisitions in terms of fleet mix, evolving towards lower car categories.