The European Commission has approved Volkswagen’s acquisition of sole control over Europcar, the French car rental group it has co-owned since 2022. Brussels concluded on November 10 that the deal raised no competition concerns given its limited impact on the structure of the market.
The transaction was notified to the Commission on October 13 and examined under the simplified merger review procedure, which the EU executive reserves for cases it considers unproblematic. Kenya’s Competition Authority had already cleared the same operation on August 21.
Volkswagen is not buying Europcar from scratch. Since 2022 it has held 66 per cent of Green Mobility Holding, the consortium that took the rental company private, with London-based asset manager Attestor on 27 per cent and Dutch mobility group Pon Holdings on seven per cent.
When the Commission cleared that original takeover in May 2022, the arrangement was treated as joint control, meaning Volkswagen could not take strategic decisions on its own. Under the new agreement, the carmaker is buying Attestor’s stake for about €1 billion ($1.15 billion), lifting its indirect holding to 93 per cent while Pon keeps its share.
Green Mobility Holding controls around 94 per cent of Europcar, with minority investors holding the remainder. Some analysts expect Volkswagen to reach effective control of 99 per cent of the company by October 2027 at the latest.
The German group is tightening its grip on a business that has been losing money for years. Europcar’s net loss widened by almost 28 per cent in 2025 to €332 million, while revenue slipped 2.5 per cent to €3.32 billion.
The rental company’s fleet shrank by 6.3 per cent to 269,000 vehicles over the same period. Europcar employs 8,381 people and operates in around 130 countries.
The consolidation comes as Volkswagen undergoes the most severe restructuring in its history. On March 10, the group announced plans to cut 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 after its net profit nearly halved in 2025, citing US tariffs, falling sales in China and costly strategic reversals at Porsche.
In June, the German business magazine Manager Magazin reported that the cuts could reach 100,000 jobs and include the closure of four plants in Germany. Volkswagen’s works council and the IG Metall union vowed to fight any such plan.
Volkswagen first took full ownership of the rental firm in 1999 before selling it to French investment company Eurazeo in 2006.
When it returned as the lead investor in 2021, Volkswagen presented Europcar as the foundation for a broader mobility platform. With the latest clearance from the European Union’s competition watchdog, it would now be free to pursue that strategy without needing its partners’ approval.
