May 25, 2021—The semiconductor shortage, coupled with easing travel restrictions, is leaving many rental car companies scrambling to increase their fleets.
According to a Honolulu Civil Beat report, some Hawaii visitors are paying upwards of $700 per day for a rental car. When the pandemic began, companies like Hertz and Budget sold off portions of their fleets and shipped some of their inventory to the U.S. mainland, but as traveling has increased, the semiconductor shortage has left them without a place to replenish the vehicles that they sold.
“It’s an unexpected consequence of the pandemic that we didn’t see coming, and it’s not just Kauai or Hawaii—it’s Arizona, Florida, all of these visitor destinations are in the same boat that we are in,” Kauai Visitors Bureau executive director Sue Kanoho told the publication. “And, look, it’s serious. This is going to affect all of us in one way or another.”
