Analyses
26 jan 21

Snapshot of the vehicle fleet leasing leaders in Latin America

Coming into 2021, Fleet LatAm identified a total of 1.42 million corporate vehicle leasing contracts in Latin America in 4Q20, nearly double that of the 758,770 identified one year prior.

Excluding Mexico, local players lead their respective national markets, providing both rent-a-car and long-term leasing services. As for business performance, daily rentals did face challenges in 2020 but corporate leasing remained stable overall.  

With that said, below is our snapshot of Latin America's main corporate car leasing players in the largest automobile markets as of December 2020. Brazil and Mexico, which represent approximately 70% of the Latam market, are prioritized.

Brazil

Local firm Unidas leads the country with 85,963 leased vehicles, up 1.1% from the 85,000 reported one year before. Considering its rent-a-car fleet, the company has a total of 158,320 vehicles.

Up next is Brazil’s Localiza. It has a total of 60,637 units in its long-term leasing fleet, down 10.3% year-over-year.  However, if includig car rentals, the company holds the largest fleet in South America with 279,885 vehicles.  
Meanwhile, local company Movida saw its fleet increase by 14.9% to 42,505 units (112,430 with rent-a-car). France-based multinationals follow, being ALD up 12.5% to 36,000 and Arval up 8.9% to 24,500 vehicles.


Mexico

Canada-based multinational Element (Element-Arval alliance member) leads Mexico with 70,000 vehicles, up 11.1% from 63,000.

VW Finance comes in second with 55,000 units (basically the same year-over-year), followed by local company Casanova Renting which saw its fleet size drop by 11.5% to 40,700 units.

Rounding up the top five is international player LeasePlan which remains at some 34,000 units and Ariza (the local unit of US-based ARI) which saw its fleet jump 51.1% to 33,242 units.

Other countries

In Argentina, home to Latin America’s third largest national car fleet, local player RDA (Element-Arval alliance member)leads with 11,900 units (up 8.2% year-on-year) and Auto Corp (ALD-Wheels alliance member) follows with some 2,500 units (basically the same as the previous year).

As for Chile, local company Mitta rules the roost with 17,000 units (up 30.8%) followed by Europcar-Tattersall with 13,000 units (up 62.5%).

In Colombia, local company Renting Colombia shows a 39.3% increase for the year with 20,889 units (26,787 with rent-a-car), followed by British firm TraXall which manages 3,143 units.

Meanwhile in Peru, Arval-Relsa increased by 50 vehicles this year to reach 5,850 units and ALD’s fleet rose by 500 vehicles to 2,500 units.

Finally, the main player throughout Central America is Guatemala-based Arrend (ALD-Wheels alliance member) with 7,891 vehicles in six countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama). Its fleet rose by 47% year-over-year.

2021 Outlook

Over the next 12 months, the fleet leasing market is expected to do well, according to regional executives, and double-digit increases are even expected in some regions.

For more insight on vehicle leasing in Latin America, download the Fleet LatAm Insitutute's latest Expert Insights entitled "Why leasing is the right choice during s crisis".


Fleet LatAm Expert Insights 7, authored by Fleet LatAm board chariman Pascal Serres (pictured) and Fleet LatAm editor Daniel Bland

Authored by: Daniel Bland