September 29, 2026
Frankfurt Airport, Germany

Rental Summit 2026 

Beyond the Price Tag: Powering the Future of Rental

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Whether you joined us on the journey at Frankfurt Airport or are catching up from the departure lounge, welcome to the official review of the Rental Summit 2026.

Under the theme Beyond the Price Tag – Powering the Future of Rental, the invitation-only event brought together 82 senior industry experts from 43 organisations across 16 countries. Rental operators, industry associations, OEMs, component specialists, and technology providers gathered at the Frankfurt Airport Visitors' Center and FRALounge to tackle the sector's most pressing challenge: how whole-life value and total cost of ownership (TCO) are defining more profitable, resilient, and lower-emission fleets.

From moving beyond initial purchase costs to balancing productivity, uptime, and the right power solutions for every application, the day delivered practical strategies for the runway ahead.

Below, you can explore the event review in full, dive into the key insights, and watch all the recorded keynote presentations.

 

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Keynote Presentations

in order of appearance 

Watch the keynote presentations below to see how leading industry voices approach total cost of ownership, fleet resilience, and smarter lifecycle investment.

Sjoerd van de Velde

Managing Director - EMEA
Briggs & Stratton

Carole Bachmann

Secretary General 
European Rental Association

Neil Bravery

Commercial Director 
Hire Association Europe (HAE)

Frederic Lietaer 

Chief Executive Officer
ELIET

Harald Schreibmüller

Head of Sales
Hainzl Motion & Drives

 

David Frank

SVP & President of Electrification
Briggs & Stratton | Vanguard

 

John Smeets

Director Fleet Uptime Compliance & Excellence
Boels Rental
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The Rental Summit 2026 in Pictures

 

 
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Interviews
Sjoerd van de Velde at Rental Summit 2026 thumbnail
Sjoerd van de Velde
Managing Director EMEA
 Briggs & Stratton
 
"I think the million-dollar question is: How can we make everybody win from the manufacturer to the end user, the rental house or the construction company owners?"
 
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Carole Bachmann
Secretary General
 European Rental Association (ERA)
 
"We really want TCO to become not only a calculation, but a way of understanding the decisions you make and following the full life of the equipment."
 
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Neil Bravery
Commercial Director
 Hire Association Europe (HAE)
 
"The industry is changing a lot. Sustainability, net zero, all of that stuff is coming together at the moment, and it's making it harder for hire companies to try and make a good, decent profit."
 
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Frederic Lietaer
CEO
 ELIET
 
"Battery machines are very expensive, and that scares off a lot of rental companies because they have a high upfront investment. That's the reason why we have this so-called modular design concept."
 
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Harald Schreibmüller
Head of Sales
 Hainzl Motion & Drives
 
"It's getting more and more complicated for the OEMs to deal with all the
regulations. And this is where we step in and we say we don't want to sell a component alone, we
want to take the responsibility of most of the components of the machine."
 
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David Frank
SVP & President of Electrification
 Briggs & Stratton | Vanguard
 
"Don't just make the short-term investment where you say, I'm gonna go buy this piece of equipment because it's cheap. You have to remember what got rental to where it is and what your customers are looking for, which is reliability."
 
John Smeets at Rental Summit 2026 thumbnail
John Smeets
Director Fleet Uptime Compliance & Excellence
 Boels Rental
 
"Exactly now in this time of where we're living in with the increasing prices on diesel and fuels, that there is a tipping point. And we need to find a tipping point together with our OEMs when it makes sense to shift from combustion to electric."
 
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Optimising TCO for Rental Fleets
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At the Rental Summit 2026, equipment downtime and lifecycle efficiency dominated the agenda. Lower initial acquisition costs rarely translate to lower fleet expenses if engines require frequent servicing or battery packs deliver poor runtimes.

From Oil Guard™ technology that extends service intervals to intelligent Vanguard Si1.5 swappable battery systems, our power solutions are engineered to maximise utilisation and drive down the true cost of operating your equipment.
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Main Sponsor

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The Rental Summit 2026 was sponsored by Vanguard, Briggs & Stratton's commercial power solution brand. Partnering with our customers to conquer challenges and develop innovative products for more than 40 years, Vanguard is now one of the top-experts for game-changing commercial lithium-ion battery technology.

Discover Vanguard
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Proud Partners of Rental Summit 2026

 

in alphabetical order

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