STELIOS Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, has launched his new internet-only daily rental venture easyRentacar.com with an attack on rivals for being 'outdated and overpriced'. At the launch of his first London site, one of two in the UK, he said he was targeting fleets as much as retail customers with cut-price rental.

Rentals for the solus Mercedes-Benz A-class fleet at £9 a day. Haji-Ioannou, who is putting £5 million from his own funds into the venture, which will create a 4,000 vehicle fleet, said: 'This industry has operating practices that are stuck in the 1970s and customers have to pay for that. I pick businesses that have been lazy about cutting costs and then go in with cut prices. The result is a low margin, but we make it up on the volume.'

Customers can only book cars over the internet, but in turn, prices are as low as £9 a day if booked early. Yield management means that prices can go as high as £39 a day when demand is high and users are also charged a one-off £5 cleaning fee, which daily rental competitors point out are more expensive than the rates they charge. Sites have opened at London Bridge, where the firm has taken over six floors of an NCP car park, Glasgow and Barcelona, with plans for other sites in Amsterdam, Nice, Malaga and Geneva.