The car rental company Sixt expects a loss at the start of the year and wants to reduce its fleet with electrically powered vehicles. The Pullach-based company announced on Thursday that profit before taxes (EBT) will be between minus 15 and minus 28 million euros in the first quarter. Last year there was a profit of 33.3 million euros in the books. The main reasons for the poor consolidated result include increased interest expenses and increased depreciation due to lower residual values.
After used car prices for electric cars came under pressure over the past year and customers showed greater interest in vehicles with conventional drive systems, the company wants to further reduce its inventory of electric vehicles, for which it bears the residual value risk.
For the 2024 financial year, the board expects a pre-tax profit of between 400 and 520 million euros, which is on average around the previous year’s level of 464 million euros. In view of the high expected demand and the continued international expansion, Sixt is expecting significant sales growth. Sixt plans to announce further figures for the current financial year on Friday.
The car rental company recently gave its customers access to almost 400,000 charging points in the public charging network Volkswagen-Daughter Elli. The Sixt Charge charging solution in the Sixt app, developed together with Elli, simplifies the charging of electric cars Germany, Austria, France and the Benelux countries, the car rental company announced this week. Sixt is the first major car rental company to provide its customers with all functions, from finding charging points to billing, in its app. You no longer needed charge cards, apps or third-party registrations. The charging is billed by Elli using the credit card stored in the Sixt app.