If you haven’t already experienced it first hand, we have some bad news for you: Fleet managers are going to need a lot of patience in the near future. The new car delivery times are longer than ever – normally you wait up to 7 months for your car. For special models like the Audi e-tron GT, the wait can be up to 14 months. Some of the hybrids that are currently so popular won’t be available until spring … Spring 2023, mind you.

The company Dataforce confirms this trend: “With an overall market decline in new registrations of 25.1 percent, all sales channels suffered losses of over 20 percent in September 2021.” In the consulting firm’s view, this is not so much because there is no demand, but because companies are often unable to deliver: “The further development of the passenger car market depends primarily on the supply side. Demand remains high, but cannot be met. An easing of the supply situation for semiconductors is not foreseeable in the short term.”

In practice, this effect causes difficulties for fleet managers – fleet managers’ money now disappears into a Bermuda Triangle of fleet costs.