Hitachi grows European rental programme

Hitachi’s Premium Rental programme in Europe now has 1437 machines in its dealer-led rental fleet and has a target of 2000 machines by 2024/25.

René Danielsson, Rental Manager Europe at Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe), speaking to International Rental News (IRN) at Bauma, said the business had invested around €65 million of the €100 million allocated to the initiative in 2018.

René Danielsson, Rental Manager Europe at Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe), pictured on the Hitachi stand at Bauma 2022. (Photo: IRN)

“We still have some room to grow”, said Danielsson, “We see demand for rental is growing higher and higher.”

Thirty-five of the company’s 40 dealers in Europe are now participating in the rental scheme.

Under the programme, Hitachi buys the machines which are then rented to end users by its dealers, who maintain and repair the machines during rentals.

Danielsson said the rental fleet now encompassed a very wide range of machines, from mini excavators up to very large ZX890 or EX1200 excavators.

“When we started the focus was on mid-sized excavators and wheeled loaders, but the dealers are asking for other products”, he told IRN, “In the second year we were also providing minis and one and a half years ago we also starting on mining equipment.”

He said that supply chain issues and economic uncertainty were also playing a part in the growth of the programme; “Every crisis tends to help us. Companies don’t invest so much, so they have to rent the machines.”

Danielsson said that to date no dealer had returned any rental machines to Hitachi; “We see, because of the high demand, that at the end of the rental contracts the customer either extends the rental or buys it.”

He said Hitachi would add electric machines in the fleet – the OEM showed four electric models at Bauma; “We will integrate all our electric machines in the fleet, as many as I can take I will take, because I am convinced that we will need them.”

The programme has been particularly successful in Italy and the Nordic countries, as well as the Baltic States.

Danielsson said that revenues generated by the programme would be around €40 million in 2022, but would ramp up in the coming years as the business started to benefit from sales of the used machines that were added to the fleet from 2018.