Sixt has posted record revenues and profit along with corporate fleet growth on the back of “continued internationalisation, operational improvements, and an increasingly positive market environment”.

Sixt grew its global rental fleet in the corporate countries by more than 10%

The results for financial year 2022 from the global mobility specialist show revenues rose to €3.1bn (£2.7bn/US$3.3bn). Strongest growth was seen in North America where revenue increased by 55.4% to €908.2m (£796.4m/US$967.2m) – the United States is now the largest single market for Sixt worldwide. The Europe segment (excluding Germany) achieved growth of 35.1% to €1.28bn (£1.12bn/US$1.36bn). The German segment also made a substantial contribution to the group’s growth by posting a 17.6% increase to €869.8m (£767.2m/US$926.3m).

The preliminary figures also show pre-tax profit reached an historic high of €550.2m (£481.6m/US$586.5m), up 24.4%, despite significant investments in growth and quality.

In the face of global vehicle shortages, the firm also increased its global rental fleet in the corporate countries by more than 10% to 138,400 cars last year on an annual average compared to 2021. This was helped by its long-standing relationships with BMW/Mini, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, which held a 57% fleet share in 2022 – the same as 2021 and up seven percentage points on pre-covid 2019.

Sixt also noted that general delivery capability of OEMs is improving and said it’s planning another substantial expansion of its fleet for the current year.

Uptake of electrified vehicles (incl. plug-in hybrids and mild hybrids) also continued; their share on the rental fleet in Europe was increased from around 10% to more than 14% year-on-year as part of the sustainability programme adopted in 2022 and Sixt is aiming for an ‘e-share’ of 70-90% by 2030.

It was the second record year in a row for Sixt and co-CEO Alexander Sixt said: “The results show that our group has reached a noticeably higher level in terms of its strategic positioning, earnings power and resilience than before the Covid pandemic. We invested heavily last year, in our fleet, staff, technology and marketing, for example. We have thus laid the foundations for future growth and the further sharpening of our premium positioning.”

Plans for 2023 include a focus on four key areas. This includes the further increase of service excellence, especially through investments in existing stations and the further digitalisation and automation of services. Sixt is also seeking further improvement of operational excellence to reduce costs and increase capacity utilisation to offer more vehicles to customers even faster.

The mobility giant is also planning continuous expansion of the (premium) rental fleet as well as expansion of the global Sixt network, and it’s aiming for continuous transformation of the rental fleet towards electric and acceleration of take-up for this technology among customers.