Enterprise Rent-A-Car Adds 5,000 Hybrids to Nationwide Fleet
03 February 2009
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is adding approximately 5,000 additional gas/electric hybrids to its nationwide fleet and designating nearly 80 rental locations across the country as “hybrid branches.” The designated hybrid branches have a high concentration of the new hybrids available and, for the first time, customers can reserve these hybrids online or by phone.
The addition of nearly 5,000 hybrid vehicles more than doubles the amount of hybrids the company owns; already the world’s largest fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles.
The new hybrids will be available in 24 major markets across the country, including the 10 busiest airports for business travelers in the United States. Markets include California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Fresno); Colorado (Denver); Florida (Orlando, Tampa); New York (Albany, Ithaca, New York City, Rochester); Oregon (Eugene, Portland); Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston); Atlanta; Boston; Detroit; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; St. Louis; Seattle; and Washington, DC.
Customers in these markets will be able to choose from several makes and models of hybrid vehicles including the Toyota Prius, Nissan Altima, Ford Escape and Toyota Camry. Rental costs will vary according to market conditions; rates also will vary at locations throughout the country.
The Enterprise family of companies is owned by the Taylor Family and includes the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands. In addition to its focus on hybrids, Enterprise has designated eight E85/FlexFuel branches where as much as 30% of the local fleets are FlexFuel vehicles.
Enterprise, National and Alamo customers can offset the CO2 emissions of their rental cars by opting to pay $1.25 per rental to fund certified offset projects through TerraPass. The company’s charitable foundation will match customer contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million.
Very nice one! Now I can rent each of the hybrids for a week and see which I can live with (hopefully they get Fusion Hybrids as well, when they are available, - I'd like to rent a Camry, Altima and Fusion hybrid back to back and see which is best for me).
Posted by: Patrick | 03 February 2009 at 12:44 PM
Hi Patrick, that will cost you about $1,700 in Portland, Oregon, for example.
That’s more than twice as much as for the comparable non hybrid cars.
That is apparently Enterprise’s idea of “environmental commitment to growing the market for alternative fuels and technologies”.
Is charging twice as much for hybrids really supposed to grow the market?
Very nice one?
Coincidentally, I am going to be in Portland for a week in July/August, and I wanted to rent a Prius.
But now that I have visited The Enterprise website, and looked up the prices, I would feel like a fool to rent a Prius from them.
Posted by: Fred H | 04 February 2009 at 04:40 AM
Fred,
Yes, I would NOT be willing to pay out that kind of cash. I guess I'll have to settle for renting the standard versions (Fusion, Altima, Camry) and then just doing the short "test drive" in the hybrid versions...but you really don't learn anything about day to day owning a car on a test drive.
Posted by: Patrick | 04 February 2009 at 09:25 AM