page_title: RAC Limited
section_title: Roadside assistance
hierarchical_section_title: RAC Limited / Services / Roadside assistance
context_page_description: RAC Limited is a British automotive services company headquartered in Walsall, West Midlands. Its principal services are roadside assistance and general insurance, and its subsidiaries include RAC Motoring Services Ltd, RAC Financial Services Ltd and RAC Insurance Limited.
  The RAC emerged as the "Associate Section" of the Royal Automobile Club founded at the turn of the 20th century, and it was incorporated as R.A.C. Motoring Services Ltd. in 1978. It was sold by the members of the Royal Automobile Club to Lex Service in April 1999, which subsequently renamed itself RAC plc. In March 2005, RAC plc was acquired by Aviva and therefore delisted.
  Aviva then sold the RAC to the Carlyle Group in June 2011. Although Carlyle had originally planned a stock market flotation for the RAC, in September 2014, Carlyle agreed to sell almost half its stake to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited. In December 2015, Carlyle agreed to sell its remaining stake to CVC Capital Partners, in an transaction valuing the RAC at £1.4 billion.
  The RAC's main competitors are The AA and Green Flag.
context_section_description: The RAC has around 2,000 patrols that attend 2.8 million breakdowns each year, this includes overseas breakdowns with RAC Europe. The RAC covers eight million roadside assistance customers, with 2.2 million individual members and 4.5 million corporate customers. Their breakdown assistance centres operate 24/7, and deal with approximately four millions calls a year.
  They have introduced, for trial, two hybrid vehicles, to cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions. In May 2009, a survey by J.D. Power ranked the RAC highest in "satisfying roadside assistance customers" for the fourth consecutive year. RAC Europe is breakdown cover for customers from the United Kingdom that travel to Europe. 
  RAC Europe covers forty seven European countries, and provides English speaking Incident Managers, available twenty four hours a day to assist. The office is based near Lyon, in Villeurbanne, France.
caption: An RAC roadside assistance van
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