Do you see a positive trend in business travel since last year?
P.-O. Bard - There has been no real change. It is still lower than it was in 2019, even though our business is now slightly recovering. This trend shows that the corporate market is fairly buoyant. The business segment has stabilised on a new footing. All our customers say that certain types of travel have disappeared and will not reappear, in particular all those meetings at company headquarters for which videoconferencing is an alternative. As this type of meeting has declined, so has the corresponding travel. On the other hand, we can see that travel to the provinces, by sales staff or engineers for example, does exist and will always exist. In this context, our growth will take fairly traditional forms, driven by the acquisition of new customers and the development of our fleets.
For these fleets, switching to electric vehicles is undoubtedly one of the priorities?
P.-O. Bard - This is a major development, and one that will only accelerate. Under the LOM law, fleet renewal must include 10% of low-emission vehicles, i.e. hybrid, rechargeable and electric. Next year, it's 20%, which still means more hybrid and electric vehicles in 2024. Especially as we renew 100 %s of our fleet each year, compared with company vehicles and long-term hire vehicles, which are only renewed by a quarter. So the number of electric cars available is rising much faster.
Are your business customers converting as quickly?
P.-O. Bard - Until now, companies did not include electric vehicles in their short-term car hire programmes, but only the classic categories. This is despite the fact that, for over a year now, we have been responding to all invitations to tender by including our electric categories. Today, more and more customers, who have themselves greened their fleets internally, are asking us to include them. among authorised vehicles. Now that the vehicles are starting to appear in the systems, we'll have to see how this translates into bookings. Before, business travellers couldn't even book them. The electric alternative could be offered to them, but only at the counter, and business travellers were quite keen to try it out. The time it takes for these models to be adopted gives us a little time on our side to create the infrastructure needed to recharge the cars.
How do you deploy these solutions?
P.-O. Bard - Avis is working with the French company Bump to install these electric terminals in what are known as back-up bases, where cars are stored and cleaned. In airports and railway stations, the forward bases belong to the managers, and it's up to them to install the necessary infrastructure. And that's a long way off... So we've decided to invest and develop our own infrastructure.install terminals in our own infrastructures to enable our customers to have fully loaded cars on departure.
However, over and above your solutions, the adoption of electric cars also depends on the deployment of charging stations throughout the country.
P.-O. Bard - It's a complicated ecosystem. The big change we've seen in the first six months of the year is that there are now charging points all over motorway service areas. This is really reassuring for our customers. Now it's developments on the secondary network which will be important. There are often slow charging points, but what is still lacking today are fast-charging solutions. For a customer who has to return his car to a station, waiting three hours to recharge it is not an option. So this is the next key step.
Business travellers used to return their cars with a full tank of petrol. Is your request the same for electric models?
P.-O. Bard - Exactly. But today, we're letting toleranceIn other words, if the customer returns with 80% of autonomy, nothing will be asked of them. We only charge below this level. And this is done by means of flat-rate charges rather than invoicing by kilowatt/hour, so as not to penalise customers too much. This system is designed to reassure them. Customers still have the same fears about the range of electric cars, which has improved considerably. However, we mustn't forget that the average customer drives 70 km a day. So, all electric cars have this capacity, and it's not a real issue today.
Have you launched any new services in recent months?
P.-O. Bard - We have introduced Drive subscription cards that guarantee discount levels ranging from 10 to 20% on a permanent basis. An offer that aims to mainly leisure customers. In the same way, we have new products, in particular Quick Pass, a system that allows you to do all the booking steps upstream and spend less time in the agency. Our Preferred members were already able to do this, including many business travellers. Our other customers now have this option, either online or over the phone. All that remains is to check your licence at the station, which is compulsory. In the wake of the pandemic, we are continuing to strengthen the digitalization aspect.
