BMW supplies China automobile rental market

BEIJING, Dec 28, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- BMW has broken into China's automobile rental market at full throttle, and delivered 31 BMW 318i and 10 MINI ONE models to China Auto Rental (CAR), the country's leading auto rental service provider.

The delivery was just part of CAR's RMB600-million car purchase plan for 2010.

Yao Junhong, senior vice president of CAR, said that it is the largest order offered to BMW by Chinese auto rental service providers, the first batch of business BMW has received for its MIMI series, as well as a transaction involving the most high-end vehicles by a Chinese car rental firm in a single month.

The BMW vehicles are expected to appear in CAR's Beijing and Shanghai service stations at the same time. The rent will be 699 yuan a day from Monday to Thursday, while on weekends and holidays it will be 799 yuan daily.

CAR unveiled its RMB600-million auto purchase plan for 6,000 cars in November. The number of CAR's on-service autos will reach 12,000 by the end of this year, and top 100,000 within five years.