CHENGDU, Aug. 16 (NBD) -- China Auto Rental, a leader in China's car rental industry, saw its business volume, namely, the number of days of car rentals, rise 71 percent in the first half of this year, hitting a record high since 2013, according to the rental company's fiscal report for the Jan.-June period.

The company's revenue for the first six months totaled 3.61 billion yuan (about 540.6 million U.S. dollars), up 22 percent from a year ago. Of that, the income from the car rental business soared by 31 percent year on year to 1.74 billion yuan (260.6 million U.S. dollars).

Net profits stood at 380 million yuan (about 56.9 million U.S. dollars). The sharp rise of business volume led to stronger scale effects, reducing the single vehicle cost and pushing up the profit margin of the car rental business by 3 percent.

China Auto Rental's announced that its brick-and-mortar car rental network has been expanded to 823 directly-run service outlets in 104 cities as of June 30, covering most first- and second-tier cities and major scenic spots. Its franchising network has a coverage of 239 service outlets in 189 third- and fourth-tier cities.

The renter's fleet size has jumped to 100,029 vehicles. Of those, the number of rental vehicles has grown by 32.8 percent to 71,872.

In addition to the continuously expanding fleet and effective cooperation with UCAR, smart operation made a great contribution to China Auto Rental's striking performance in the first half of 2017.

Through the "Sharp" smart transportation platform within "UCAR BRAIN", a human-vehicle smart system launched by UCAR Group, China Auto Rental can have a clear view of vehicle operations, ranging from rentals in a city to moving trajectory of each vehicle. Moreover, it can leverage the big data system of UCAR BRAIN to analyze rental demand based on different seasons, regions, and user bases.


Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn

Editor: Lan Suying