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Car shortages. Why are there no cars?
If you have been on holiday in Spain (or anywhere else in the world) in 2021 or 2022, you have noticed the severe car shortage, which makes it difficult to rent one.
What are the reasons for these difficulties?
One of the negative effects of the pandemic in 2020 has been the shortage of certain products, including semi-conductor materials used in the manufacture of electronic components. These components are also found in cars.
These difficulties in manufacturing these chips cause delays in the manufacture of vehicles (and more, but here we are interested in cars), resulting in delays in delivering units to dealerships, and therefore to the end customer, with waiting times that can sometimes reach or exceed one year. We are talking about ordinary models, not million-euro super sports cars.
There are also certain transport problems, which added to the delays in manufacturing, make the waiting times longer.
Together, these factors are causing a worldwide car shortage.
Why don’t you order the cars earlier so that they arrive on time?
Rental companies order the fleet to cover the season when we are close to the start of the season and we are more or less clear about the number of units needed. But yes, we could have been proactive this second year and brought forward the order date. But that is not the whole problem.
As we have said, dealers also have car shortages problems. When they get cars, so many of the units that reach them are mostly for private sale and are not available for rent-a-cars. This means that we can go with a forecast number of vehicles and have to change it to adapt it to the available supply. Let’s not even talk about specific models….
So, what do I do if I need to rent a car?
The best thing to do is that as soon as you know the dates that you are going to need it, contact the car hire company and make the booking . Do not leave it to the last minute. That way you will have less problems to have a vehicle on the dates you need.