If you travel on business and rent cars, you probably wonder if would be less costly just
to buy the car rather than return it with a full tank of gas. So you should not be surprised, that an enterprising entrepreneur in LA decided to create
EV Rental Car, an agency with an entire fleet of hybrid vehicles. Daily rental rates range from $ 35 to $ 75 for gasoline and electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius, or the Honda Civic hybrid. Depending upon the make, these models average 30 to 50 miles per gallon. That translates to 600 miles per tank, a significant savings to EV Rental which is shared with customers. The company has 425 cars in eight West Coast locations. By comparison, car rental giant Enterprise Rent-a-Car has only about 50 hybrids in their fleet of 650,000 cars. At present, auto manufactures do not have enough capacity to supply rental fleets with hybrid cars in volume.
Marketing Blurb learned about this niche marketer from T
he Wall Street Journal, paid subscription required.
Photo Credit: The Wall Street Journal
I'm glad to see that there are situations where hybrids cars (as opposed to heavy-duty trucks) result in savings. Consumer Reports (which focus on individuals) and several others have done studies that have the benefit as marginal. This is a good data point to say "Yes, hybrids are a good thing!".
Posted by: Mike | July 12, 2006 10:14 AM | Permalink to Comment