Each of the Atlanta “Green Branch” fleets will be composed of approximately 30 percent hybrid gas/electric vehicles and 30 percent fuel-efficient vehicles that average a highway fuel efficiency rating of at least 28 mpg. The largest of the “Green Branches” – Buckhead Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car – will offer nearly 50 hybrids available for rental. Additional “Green Branches” in the Atlanta area include Emory Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Downtown Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Dunwoody Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

“For the past 50 years, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has steadily grown its business by consistently talking with and listening to its customers,” said Dan Miller, vice president and general manager for Enterprise in Atlanta. “With Atlanta ranking among the top cities in average commute times, customers of Enterprise’s metro Atlanta branches have expressed great interest in renting environmentally friendly vehicles, and we are responding by concentrating the largest number of hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles possible at these four area branches. Enterprise is committed to supporting new technologies and alternative fuels as they become commercially viable, and we’ll continue to make them more accessible to our customers,” Miller said.

The four Enterprise Atlanta locations are the first “Green Branches” to be designated by the company in the United States. In the past year, Enterprise has officially designated a total of eight “E85/FlexFuel” branches throughout the country. Enterprise is actively deploying as many of its FlexFuel vehicles as possible near E85 fueling stations nationally, in order to build consumer awareness and increase the number of cars being fueled with E85.

Enterprise Rent a Car’s new fleet of hybrid cars will be made up of Saturn VUES. Initially the hybrid car fleet will be small — 160 cars — in comparison to Enterprise’s over fleet of nearly 800,000 cars. Availability of these environmentally sound hybrids is also limited to just three cities in California. At the time of the announcement, there were no plans to expand the avalability of the hybrid car rental program to places outside the west coast.

Brett Bittel, Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise in California. “The Saturn Vue Hybrids deliver 20 percent better fuel economy over the standard Vue engine, and if California renters show that they demand alternative fuel cars we will continue to add more to our fleet.” The introduction of the hybrid vehicles is just one of Enterprise’s many environmentally-friendly initiatives.

With this initiative, Enterprise becomes the second nation wide company to offer hybrid rental cars in the United States. Fox Rental Car though an exclusive partnership with EV Rental. Currently Fox Rental Car is offering 10% off all hybrid rental cars though it’s website, located at www.foxrentacar.com

To commemorate Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s 50th anniversary, the company is underwriting the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years at a total cost of $50 million dollars. The Enterprise Rent-A-Car 50 Million Tree Pledge partners with The National Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service in a long-term commitment to help restore public lands that are in need of reforestation. California is expected to benefit in particular from the tree plantings because of the onslaught of forest fires in the state each year.