Avis Fleet has introduced iLease, the company’s first leasing product in South Africa. iLease allows consumers the use of a vehicle for any duration between 12 and 48 months, as an alternative to ownership.

Consumers are able to pick their preferred car and select the length of time they wish to have access to it.

Pricing includes the use of the vehicle, comprehensive insurance, normal vehicle maintenance, roadside assistance and yearly relicensing.

Consumers can locate the vehicle of their choice from their preferred franchise dealer and Avis will buy it and lease it to them, or they can order the vehicle from Avis and the company will source the vehicle.

Consumers can also source a nearly new vehicle from their franchise dealer or from Avis’s list of 12-month-old vehicles at Avis Car Sales.

This approach to car usership, rather than ownership, “guarantees true flexibility, convenience, and a new dimension of mobility freedom”, says the company.

Mobility solutions provider Zeda CEO Ramasela Ganda says iLease aims to respond to consumers’ growing need for choice and convenience. (Zeda operates Avis in South Africa.)

“iLease is an important milestone for us in leading the charge towards a usership economy in South Africa,” she notes.

“This product offering recognises that mobility is evolving, and today more than ever is redefining the way people move, connect and experience life individually.”

The concept of car ownership has long been ingrained as a status symbol in South Africa, with limited awareness of alternative options, she adds.

However, as consumers mature, markets have increasingly transitioned towards usership models such as vehicle leasing and subscriptions, and South Africa “is poised for a similar shift”.

Most South African consumers do not, for example, keep their cars for the entire duration of their finance agreements.

“Also, the consumer behaviour of Millennials, who are more open to new concepts, makes this an opportune time for Avis iLease to revolutionise the South African automotive landscape,” says Ganda.