Q: How was the year 2024 for your company and for its main segments like rent-a-car, cars and bus sales, or operations like leasing?
Mr. Tal Lahav: 2024 was a challenging year so far, characterized mainly by local and global macro and micro effects such as inflation, higher interest rates, political and regulatory changes, and TCO volatilities. 2024 for SIXT Always Yes is a year of continuous and consistent commitment of applying our long-term objectives, as we have continued to invest and increase our performance, working on details, on new improved services, on great partnerships and talented people to further build our future. We continued to be even more performant, more resilient, more creative and more united to face the daily challenges, focused on quality, innovation, and flexibility as key performance indicators. And the Always Yes energy generator is our cohesive, long term management team, focused on developing our business to success.
I am daily experiencing the Always Yes in all its aspects: finding commercial, operational and financial solutions, choosing creative alternatives and taking not the most intuitive solutions, but the most fitted to our business and our clients. We are optimistic about this year and see on a good trend all our divisions:
In SIXT Operational Leasing we attracted more companies that trust in our services and good reputation and consolidated further our clients portfolio. In addition, we signed a strategic partnership with Raiffeisen Bank Romania, to provide companies and individuals in the Romanian market with various personalized mobility services, including operational leasing, fleet management, and rent a car services for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. With this partnership, we aim to provide full range of mobility services also to the wide range of Corporate and Retail clients of Raiffeisen Group and help support the transition of the Romanian market to operational mobility solutions.
In the SIXT Rent a Car division, we further developed the corporate mobility segment as a very convenient and cost-effective mobility solution for all companies that see the benefits of having flexible mobility solutions.
In the used cars division, SIXT SH continued to provide peace of mind solutions and selling cars with clear history and comprehensive warranty.
As unique importer of BYD electric buses in Romania, this year, SIXT Always Yes, through New Kopel Car Import, signed a Framework Agreement with the Municipality of Bacau for the supply of 48 12 m electric buses. It is the most important tender won in 2024 by New Kopel Car Import after those in Constanța (20 buses), Buzau (9 buses) and Cluj Airport (an electric bus, specially designed for airport services to transfer passengers between terminals and aircraft), the last being a national premiere;
In Renault Union Motors dealership we are working on developing our brand visibility and consolidate our position in the market;
In Union Motors workshop we invested in performant equipment and know-how, and the electric cars are already part of our daily job. Also, #AtelierulUnionMotors arrived this year to its 5th edition, as a proof of our long-term commitment to education.
On a corporate level, we continue to be the mobility partner to lead the way for national programs as “Programul National pentru Siguranta – Ora de Educatie Rutiera”, “Plantam fapte bune in Romania” and “Banca pentru alimente”, all developed under #AlwaysYesToEducation campaign platform.
Q: Were there any challenges for this year that you didn’t expect? How do you describe the local presence of an international mobility service providers, like Sixt Always Yes, in 2024?
Mr. Tal Lahav: 2024 develops with many challenges, among these local and global macro and micro effects as inflation, higher interest rates, political and regulatory changes, and TCO increases.
Each day comes with unexpected challenges, but that past experience has taught us to be agile, flexible, and adaptable to these and since we are prepared to deal with them we see challenges as opportunities to grow and develop.
I would like to elaborate the further market challenges: The first one is the fact that Romania is not a mature automotive market – it is characterized as car park below other markets in Europe. Romania has one of the oldest car parks in Europe, heavily polluting, and one of the lowest markets in Europe in terms of cars per capita, new cars per capita, and share of new cars to used cars sales and negative importing balance into the country and share of operational mobility solutions as an average from its total car park. This is a known challenge and opportunity for Romania.
All these lead to huge unfulfilled potential and more than this a need to heal the car industry. Of course, all these should also be supplemented with investment in infrastructure development and regulatory incentives.
The second one is the constant need for mobility solutions that we can cover exactly. The rent and operational lease services are a real necessity for any individual and moreover for a small, medium or big company.
In the current economy that consist of TCO increase, from car prices to interest rates, to inflation of all operational costs as insurance, maintenance, tires, etc. all combined with higher volatility risk for TCO and for remarketing prices and liquidity, operational solutions are the most appropriate to both individuals and for companies.
In the European countries, operational leasing and car rental is part of the day by day life. The industry will continue to organically increase as more companies and individuals see and understand the benefits, simply put a way to predictability and cost control while receiving mobility professionalism and full solutions to enable companies flexibility and mobility and ability to concentrate on its core activities;
I believe that the domestic automotive industry is a strong pillar for sustainable economic growth now and on long term.
Q: What was the tendency you can identify on the Romanian market for e-mobility, in other words, what happened in the electric vehicles market in terms of customers demand/development seeing some preferences in the automotive industry to postpone ‘’the end’’ of the internal combustion engines?
Mr. Tal Lahav: There is a growing trend globally and locally to move to hybrid and electric solutions. We have noticed this year a decrease in full electric demand and a shift to hydrid solutions. Our company remains committed to supporting and investing in a range of sustainable, green solutions, especially where we see the trends combined with infrastructure investment and regulatory push in this direction.
We are promoting our hybrid and electric cars to corporate and retail clients, yet Romania has steps to take in the migration to more significant numbers of electric and hybrid execution. This involves mainly investment in infrastructure of roads and charging network, and regulatory push in this direction, from posing restrictions on importing polluting cars, to imposing taxes on older polluting cars combined with more effective and directed scrapping programs, support by tax and regulatory incentives for non-ownership and for alternative engine usage.
We are here to offer all the mobility solutions that a customer might need and if our customers will ask for a hybrid or electric car, we will be there to offer that car to him. Very important also, for us, is to be able to grow, to develop, to innovate and to invest into the future.
Q: In your industry, what does it mean to ‘’act quickly’’? What do customers demand from you? Do artificial intelligence solutions already play a role in your business?
Mr. Tal Lahav: Clients need mobility that should cover all their specific needs. And that involves a sense of urgency since our customers work in dynamic fields and have a dynamic profile also. The automotive industry is in intense process of digitalization and automatizations, including impacts of AI, all aiming at improving mobility and efficiency and effectiveness of services. Still, direct interaction with the customer remains a must have and nowadays, the expectations are bigger than ever since the customer really knows his value and the worth of the services he pays for.
Q: How do you continue to attract new customers? Do local administrations (through your divisions) might be part of your strategy to attract new customers? Can you exemplify?
Mr. Tal Lahav: We offer integrated mobility services for the local market, suitably fitted to its contextual needs. That is, indeed, a strategical advantage, since it allows us to be flexible and activate one business unit or another, depending on the market fluctuations and client needs and also to offer the specific mobility services needed, depending on the evolution of a company or the mobility a company or a person might have, no matter it is rent, buy, lease, any logistic or operational mobility fleet management related services, or auto workshop service. From a visibility and awareness perspective, we keep our position through communication and activities we implement constantly. SIXT is always present, always visible and always there for any mobility requirements. Always with quality, reliability, flexibility, and partnership to its clients and suppliers, and as one strong team of caring and professionals. SIXT ALWAYS YES.
Q: As (not only) a rental company you depend a lot on the long-term strategy of the car manufacturers. Have you seen some radical changes in this sector?
Mr. Tal Lahav: Indeed, there is dependence between car manufacturers and rent a car and operational leasing companies. In recent periods, we have seen a trend of decrease in production capacity, increase in cars cost, and decrease in stock production. Increased prices and shift to various models and engines and level of specifications combined with other macro and economic factors are all resulting in direct effect over TCO and further effects over supply and demand for car acquisition. All these also bear direct and significant effect over decisions to own versus lease, rent, and pay per use. Our One Stop Shop System helps us to keep the equilibrium, adapt and perform to the benefit and needs of the market.
Q: What are the reasons for expecting a very positive business performance on the Romanian market in the coming years? In other words, what are your strategic priorities for 2025 and beyond?
Mr. Tal Lahav: Romania is one of the most promising countries in terms of potential economic development in Europe. Hand in hand with development of infrastructure and investment in improving level of quality of life combined with access to various funds, grants, and local and foreign investment, there is no doubt that supplemented with private consumption and educational development that we will see further tremendous economic growth, as one of the most European growing markets.
We believe that the automotive is one of the main economic pillars of Romania, from both the demand and supply sides, that will help to stimulate the economic growth.
As part of a multinational brand, SIXT Always Yes is continuously adapting and predicting the market trends. We are here to offer all the mobility solutions that a customer is searching for. Our clients are a mirror of the market potential.
Q: Is there anything that Sixt Always Yes can do and no other competitor can do?
Mr. Tal Lahav: We offer partnership to our clients. We offer quality, diversity and flexibility, reliability and transparency. We offer all the integrated mobility services, all brands and all kind of cars, from the small passengers’ ones, to SUV’s, VANS like 8 + 1 and even bigger commercial ones. We also sell BYD electric busses in Romania. We sell used and new cars. We offer rent a car and operational leasing services and the possibility to repair the car in one of the biggest auto workshop from Romania. Our business is further growing and will also integrate more SIXT selling points in Romania for both Rent a Car, operational leasing, and cars services and sales. Our uniqueness is that we provide full range of mobility, fleet management, and car related services, all under the same umbrella, the SIXT Always Yes One Stop Shop concept, and we do all this by building long term relationship with a simple aim, to provide quality services and support to individuals, and to business to manage their day to day core activities, while having full predictability of their mobility costs and professional, transparent, and fair value to price mobility services.
Q: How would you describe a long-term sustainable future for your business model, in the context of the new rules regarding corporate sustainability reporting?
Mr. Tal Lahav: We believe that Education is the base of each society. A powerful sustainable business has powerful roots in a society that values and invest in education. This is the attribute that we believe in and offer and involve in, as a long-term commitment. For SIXT Always Yes, the support given to children, by getting involved in long-term programs, means to contribute to a sustainable education, which is a constant effort for SIXT Always Yes since 2016. We created #AlwaysYesToEducation platform, out of our desire to actively contribute to the educational process of children. #AlwaysYesToEducation goes further, in the area of children’s education for the assimilation and correct understanding of traffic rules. Employees, voluntarily involved in #AlwaysYesToEducation, now teach them to school children in road education classes. An initiative of EDIT, Road Education Hour, the National Safety Education Program promotes the importance of compliance with traffic rules among children and is a signal of the consequences of non-compliance with traffic rules, especially near schools.
As another example, #AlwaysYesToEducation expands with #AtelierulUnionMotors. The aim of the project is to offer young students in vocational schools the opportunity to learn the trade from Union Motors professionals. Various are offered scholarships and, consequently, jobs. This year, we welcomed in our atelier 10 students that received the knowhow and guides from our Union Motors professionals.
For us, #AlwaysYesToEducation is the commitment that our company, through its volunteers, makes to young people in Romania and to the world in general.
