Rental Cars Break Summer-Travel Budgets From Sicily to Sardinia
- Car-hire prices as much as triple amid looming supply crunch
- Rental companies struggle to replenish decimated fleets
This article is for subscribers only.
There’s a fly in the ointment of taking that longed-for vacation as pandemic restrictions finally ease. This summer in Europe, rental cars are blowing the budget.
The soaring cost is particularly acute in Spain and Italy, and most pronounced on the islands of Majorca and Ibiza -- which typically welcome millions of sun-starved Brits and Germans each summer. Rental companies are struggling to restock fleets they drastically shrank last year, as factories for the likes of Volkswagen AG and Renault SA are idled by the global semiconductor shortage.