Europcar Mobility Group is a French

car rental A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches (which allow a user to ...

company founded in 1949 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. The head office of the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

, Europcar Group S.A., is in the

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

of Val Saint-Quentin at

Voisins-le-Bretonneux Voisins-le-Bretonneux () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris from the centre in the new town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Population ...

(

Saint Quentin en Yvelines Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines () is a new town and an agglomeration community in the French department of Yvelines. It is one of the original five villes nouvelles (new towns) of Paris and was named after the Saint Quentin Pond, which was chosen to ...

), France. Today, Europcar operates in 140 countries covering

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes A ...

, and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Since July 2022, Europcar has been owned by Green Mobility Holding, S,A. a consortium led by the

Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercia ...

, Attestor and

Pon Holdings Pon Holdings BV is a Dutch conglomerate in the transport sector. It was founded in 1980 by Ben Pon, Jr., a former racing car driver and son of Ben Pon, Sr., who became the importer of Volkswagen in the Netherlands in 1947. Activities Tra ...

. Keddy is the Europcar leisure rental sub-brand.

History

Early stages

Europcar Mobility Group was founded in 1949 in Paris by Raoul-Louis Mattei under the name of "The Automobile Subscription". The "Europcars" brand was created in 1951. After 20 years of growth, the company was then owned from 1970 to 1988 by

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

, the

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits Newrest Wagons-Lits, formerly (lit. ''International Sleeping-Car Company''), also CIWL, Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, or just Wagons-Lits, is a division of particularly known for its on-train catering and sleeping car services, as well as being ...

and Accor.

Volkswagen subsidiary

From 1998, Europcar had progressively been acquired by the

, until it eventually became a subsidiary 100% owned by the carmaker in 1999.

Buy-back by Eurazeo

In 2006, Eurazeo, the investment company, bought Europcar from the Volkswagen Group. The amount of the transaction was worth 2.4 times Europcar's turnover in 2005. The chairman of the Board of Eurazeo, Patrick Sayer, said: "We are thrilled by the acquisition of Europcar. With an initial participation of 900 million euros, it is due to become of the most significant investments for Eurazeo." In 2010, the group partnered with Daimler to launch the Car2Go service in Hamburg, Germany.

Philippe Germond Philippe is a masculine sometimes feminin given name, cognate to Philip. It may refer to: * Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present) * Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer * Prince Philippe, Count ...

, who had been

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of PMU since 2009, was named CEO of Europcar from October 1, 2015. In January 2015, Europcar acquired Ubeeqo, a startup that specialises in corporate

carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pr ...

. In May 2015, Europcar announced its intention to go public. In early 2017, the company announced a trio of acquisitions: Milan based GuidaMi, Europcar Denmark and Germany based Buchbinder. In December 2017, the company completed its acquisition of low-cost car rental company, Goldcar, for an enterprise value of €550 million ($616 million). In April 2018, Europcar acquired Scooty, through Ubeeqo, a Belgian start-up that specialises in electric scooter-sharing and mobility solutions in Antwerp and Brussels. In August 2019, Europcar acquired Fox Rent A Car, one of the largest independent players in the US car rental market.

Recent

On 28 July 2021, Green Mobility Holding, which is a consortium led by the Volkswagen Group, Attestor and

, announced that the consortium would acquire Europcar Mobility Group, and the transaction closed in June 2022.

Corporate affairs

Europcar's head office was formerly in the ''Immeuble Les Quadrants'' in

, France.

Commitments

Sport sponsorships

Europcar began sponsoring sport teams in 1980. The group sponsored a Formula One Renault team and the Paris-Dakar rally. The company was also involved in other sports such as golf, horse racing and marathons. Europcar has sponsored 2009 ICC Champions Trophy organised by ICC which was held in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, although it was not a major sponsor. Since 2011, Europcar has been sponsoring the French professional road cycling

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...

managed by

Jean-René Bernaudeau Jean-René Bernaudeau (born 8 July 1956) is a French former road bicycle racer, who competed professionally from 1978 to 1988. Bernaudeau currently works as the general manager for UCI ProTeam . In 1982, he said that dope controls in cycling we ...

, names after the brand: Team Europcar. The group received the "Sponsor of the year" title for its involvement in cycling, awarded by Sporsora. Europcar coach

In August 2014,

Arsenal F.C. Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (inclu ...

announced that Europcar UK had become the club's official car and van rental partner over a three-year deal.

Corporate citizenship

Europcar joined the

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princi ...

in 2005 and adopted the ten fundamental principles of the pact. The company is invested in the "Green Charter" programme, certified by

Bureau Veritas Bureau Veritas is a French company specialized in testing, inspection and certification founded in 1828. It operates in a variety of sectors, including building and infrastructure (27% of revenue), agri-food and commodities (23% of revenue), m ...

and is also a partner of WeForest, an international non-profit organisation whose goal is to foster reforestation.

Legal

In June 2014, the Australian Federal Court ruled that a Europcar franchisee (now corporate owned) in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

had "engaged in unconscionable conduct and made false or misleading representations when charging customers for damage to hire vehicles"
Mercury News, 25 May 2014, "Court slams hire car rip-off..." and fined the former franchisee owner $264,000. On 23 June 2017 the company's head offices in England were raided by Leicester

Trading Standards Trading Standards are the local authority departments with the United Kingdom, formerly known as ''Weights and Measures'', that enforce consumer protection legislation. Sometimes, the Trading Standards enforcement functions of a local authority a ...

and a case referred to the Serious Fraud Office due to accusations of overcharging customers for repairing damage to hire vehicles.

References

External links

*
Europcar Car Rental

Eurazeo
– parent company {{authority control Companies based in Paris-Saclay Companies formerly listed on the Paris Bourse Car rental companies of France French brands Retail companies established in 1949 Transport companies established in 1949 French companies established in 1949 2022 mergers and acquisitions