Avis Budget, Continental Extend Tie-Up For Connected Cars

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR) and German-based automotive manufacturing company, Continental yesterday announced the extension of their technology partnership.

Through the renewed partnership, around 50,000 vehicles in the Avis Car Rental fleet will be equipped with Continental’s Key as a Service (KaaS) technology. Of these, 25,000 will be in Europe. The KaaS technology enables keyless lock/unlocking and ignition of vehicles using the Avis mobile app.

The solution was debuted in Avis Budget’s Kansas City “Mobility Lab” in December 2017. The lab serves as a test bed for fully connected vehicles and operations.

We observe that shares of Avis Budget have declined 46.1% in the past year compared with 18.8% fall of the industry it belongs to.

Our Take

The move boosts Avis Budget’s fleet of connected cars in Europe as well as in the United States. It is expected to drive the company’s Americas and International segments. Both the segments performed well in the last reported quarter, with revenues increasing 0.3% and 2.3%, respectively, for Americas and International. While Americas contributed 66% to Avis Budget’s third-quarter 2018 revenues, International segment accounted for 34%.

Deployment of Keyless technology is part of Avis Budget’s broader goal of developing a fully connected fleet by the end of 2020.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Avis Budget currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Republic Services (NYSE:RSG) , Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) and Navigant Consulting (NYSE:NCI) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Long-term expected EPS (three to five years) growth rate for Republic Services, Waste Connections and Navigant is 10.7%, 11.7% and 13.5%, respectively.

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