Feature: Car Rental As might be expected, Hertz is a pioneer in
➔looking to rent smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles,” he maintains. “Many corporate
customers are even setting emissions limits that their employees have to stick below when renting a car.” Here, the demand is being met by most major rental companies, which are operating a selection of emission-miserly hybrid vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius. On the other hand, very few customers seem willing to pay more for using a purely green car, with many unsure about electric vehicles. Their reservations are understandable: plug-in-and-go vehicles are in short supply and the technology has yet to reach the stage where anything but a short trip is viable. In
some cases, the industry response is muted. Thrifty, for example, says it is simply not seeing a demand for greener vans, while a Sixt spokesman adds: “We have carried out tests with electric vehicles but the response from business travellers was not that good and there was little demand for such a product.” Such misgivings are balanced by companies which see the future as electrically charged. “In terms of electric vehicles, we are intro- ducing our first of these during the summer, with a rolling programme of further vehicles throughout 2011,” says Ken McCall, CEO of Europcar UK. “With our business customers already indicating an interest in them, we predict greater usage by the corporate market.”
the field, believing that with its rental and car- sharing expertise, industry relationships and global footprint, it is in an ideal position to make electric vehicle travel an everyday reality. It is building partnerships with manufacturers, charging station providers, municipalities, NGOs and corporations to scale up electric vehicle usage, and “drive measurable benefits for both consumers and the environment.“ As good as its word, earlier this year, Hertz introduced a small number of electric vehicles in London and Zurich, and announced a joint commitment with Nissan to bring the all- electric, zero-emission LEAF to select US and European car rental and sharing locations. It has also signed an agreement with Mitsubishi UK to add a limited number of the pure-electric vehicle i-MiEV to its fleets and to the car-sharing club Connect by Hertz in the UK, with the rollout programme already underway. The next stage of the plan is to introduce the vehicle at outlets throughout the UK this year, as well as offering cars for corporate and university pool fleets. While the jury is out in the case of conventional versus electric cars, the signs seem to suggest that the car rental industry as an entity is sufficiently proactive and resilient to bounce back with the energy of the Duracell rabbit.
erfect
osts
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18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE Grand Connaught Rooms, London
La Mola, Near Barcelona
The George, Edinburgh
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