Europcar Mobility Group is a French car rental 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. S ...

. 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

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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

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, 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 commercial ...

, Attestor and Pon Holdings. 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 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 Eurazeo is a French investment company formed by the merger of Azeo and Eurafrance in April 2001. The company is headquartered in Paris. Eurazeo is a leading global investment group, with a diversified portfolio of €25.6 billion in assets und ...

, the investment company, bought Europcar from the Volkswagen Group. The amount of the transaction was worth 2.4 times Europcar's

turnover Turnover or turn over may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *''Turn Over'', a 1988 live album by Japanese band Show-Ya * Turnover (band), an American rock band *"Turnover", a song on Fugazi's 1990 album '' Repeater'' *''Turnover'', a Japane ...

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 Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...

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 o ...

, 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 A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

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 pri ...

. 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 Pon Holdings, 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 The 2009 ICC Champions Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in South Africa between 22 September and 5 October, at Wanderers Stadium and Centurion Park, both in the Gauteng province. Originally, the tournament was scheduled ...

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 countri ...

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

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes Recreational cycling, recreational, Road bicycle racing, racing, Bicycle commuting, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, ...

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

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 wer ...

, names after the brand:

Team Europcar 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 info ...

. 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 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), ...

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 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