SAO PAULO, May 2 (Reuters) - Brazil's Localiza Rent a Car SA reported on Monday first-quarter net profit of 517.4 million reais ($101.75 million), up 7.3% from a year earlier.

The car rental company posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 1.14 billion reais in the period, a 41.3% increase over the first three months of 2021.

Amid soaring inflation and rising interest rates in Brazil, the company was able to raise daily car rental tariffs by 31.7% year-on-year. Although the utilization rate of its fleet retreated by 1.9 percentage points to 78.5%% in the period.

Fleet renewal slowed down, still in a context of a restricted supply for new vehicles, according to the company. Localiza's used cars sales volume fell 49.9% year-on-year, which was partially offset by the 34.9% average price increase.

Localiza's first quarter net revenues came in at 2.71 billion reais, 3.1% below the same period of 2021.

($1 = 5.0848 reais) (Reporting by Peter Frontini; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)