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Rental car counters
Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
In spite of the corona pandemic, squeeze yourself into a full train while on vacation and then maybe get caught on the train driver's strike?
With such considerations in the summer, many people may have decided against a train ticket and a rental car.
And then had to pay significantly more.
Because the prices for rental cars have risen above average this summer in the corona pandemic.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, they were 53.4 percent more expensive in August compared to the same month last year.
From June to July alone, and thus at the beginning of the summer vacation 2021, rental car prices rose by a massive 35.8 percent.
Overall consumer prices rose by only 3.9 percent over the same period.
The statisticians give several reasons for the more expensive rental cars.
According to this, on the one hand, demand increased because many people went on individual trips in their own vehicle this summer due to the corona or the new car they had ordered was not available due to delivery bottlenecks - for example due to the semiconductor crisis.
In the lockdown, rental car providers often reduced their vehicle fleets, so that the offer was reduced.
In addition, the train drivers' strikes on the railways in August are likely to have boosted demand for rental cars.
The Munich car rental company Sixt recently made positive comments about the holiday business in Europe and the USA and reported higher prices.
The company also raised its sales and profit targets for 2021.
According to the statistics office, around 32,900 employees worked in the around 4600 companies in Germany that offer rental cars before the 2019 corona pandemic.
The companies generated sales of around 33 billion euros.
mmq / Reuters / dpa
