Sixt Unlimited: From rental classic to rental car flat rate

Profile:

• Company name: Sixt SE
• Industry: Mobility
• Formation: 1912
• Founder: Martin Sixt
• Location: Pullach im Isartal, near Munich
• Subscription-based model since: 2012
• Subscription models: Rental car flat rate complementary offer to the rental business, both B2B for company cars (Sixt Unlimited) and B2C (merged into Sixt+). In summer 2020, the car subscription Sixt+ was also launched.
  
• Number of employees: 6,685
• Turnover: €2.93 billion (2018)
• Investors: Shareholders
• Total funding amount: not known

Anyone who travels on the road and in the air can’t have missed the family-owned company Sixt SE. Original aircraft advertising and bumper stickers, especially in major cities, of the new car-sharing fleet “Sixt Share” show one thing above all: Sixt wants to further expand its market leadership with a share of 32 percent (2012). There is probably no business model in the vehicle industry in which the car rental company is not active. After classic car rental, leasing and sales, it is now also investing heavily in car subscription (“Sixt Unlimited” and “Sixt Flat”) and taxi services (“Sixt Ride”).

Sixt Unlimited without time and place commitment

By summer 2020, Sixt will have differentiated its subscription offer via Mietwagen Flat into “Sixt Unlimited” for company cars and frequent travelers in the B2B sector and “Sixt Flat” for the B2C sector. The B2C offer Sixt Flat then merged into the new car subscription model Sixt+ and Sixt+ also offers deals for the company car sector.

While the monthly subscription fee of 999 euros per month with Sixt Unlimited does not include a specific car, the subscriber receives the freedom to rent a car anywhere at any time. This is made possible by Sixt’s dense and Europe-wide network of locations.

The advantages of a flat rate rental car with Sixt Unlimited

It is easy to lose track of Sixt’s price structure. Especially since products such as “Sixt Flat Seasons”, “Sixt Flat Weekend”, as well as the core business “Rent”, the car sharing offer “Share” and the taxi product “Ride” are also offered. But at the same time, this means that Sixt responds to the needs of its customers. After all, the question of mobility is less about the product or the means of transport, but much more about how you can get from A to B in the best and cheapest way.

In order to maintain an overview in the jungle of offers, Sixt also offers the technical solution. All driving services can be booked and managed via the app.

Entering the subscription business: Sixt is doing a lot right

 The fact that the Sixt family has done many things right in the past is also shown by an award for “Media Personality of the Year” from the German trade magazine “Werben & Verkaufen” in 2015. Their creative and innovative advertising campaigns are always a topic of conversation in the media and so it is only logical that Sixt also takes the “driver seat” as an innovator in mobile business models. The many new offers in the so-called “Car-as-a-Service” segment are also only the consequence of a corporate philosophy to test the market and to see at the end which offers are accepted by the consumer.

Mobility first: The future belongs to the automobile

There are two words in the word automobile: autonomous and mobility. Two words that are becoming increasingly relevant despite, or perhaps because of, the past diesel scandals and climate discussions. Alternatives are urgently needed in mobility, not only because of the burning climate issues, but also because of the increasing demand for mobility (keyword e-mobility, car sharing, etc.). After all, it is not as if Sixt decided on the extended subscription model out of necessity. As a market leader that continues to grow, Sixt sees it as its duty not to lose touch and to take into account the changing user habits in a changing society.