Hitachi to launch North American rental initiative

Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas (HCMA) will launch a rental plan for North America similar to its Premium Rental initiative in Europe, with significant investment starting in 2024 and 2025.

Speaking on the eve of the ConExpo-Con/Agg show in Las Vegas, Al Quinn, CEO of HCMA, said the rental and used equipment programme would be like that in Europe, with Hitachi creating a fleet to rent to dealers and rental companies, including short term rentals, and with no rental direct to end customers.

Al Quinn, CEO, Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas, at ConExpo 2023. (Photo: KHL)

Quinn told IRN that serious investment in the rental fleet – at the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars a year – would begin in 2024.

“On the value chain side, we will add rental and used equipment so that we’re managing the business throughout the value chain”, said Quinn, “The rental equipment fleet we will have in place will support dealers and rental companies where they need that extra capacity.”

He said business with rental companies was growing; “We’re doing business now with essentially all of the major national rental companies, like Sunbelt and United Rentals, and it’s become a core part of our growth.”

Quinn added that HCMA was ahead of its Americas sales target since the dissolving of the joint venture with John Deere, with sales in 2022 50% higher than the target and 10 times the 2021 value; “The plan for 2023 is to double again, and we are well on track.”