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High Demand for Hybrid Cars Crimps Rental Plans
With gas prices set to break $4.00, only a few companies are offering travelers an opportunity to save a couple dollars at the pump by offering hybrid cars for rent. Most big national firms are selling off their fleets of hybrid cars or never stocking the fuel-saving cars.
Though an exclusive partnership with Fox Rental Car (www.foxrentacar.com), EV Rental Cars, a Los Angeles based firm is offering hybrid cars for rent and even expanding its fleet. The company has doubled its fleet size in the last two years and though Fox, now offers travelers the opportunity to rent cars in 8 western cities including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Prices for hybrid rentals are competitive, ranging between $35 and $50 per day. Fox Rental occasionally offers online coupons that will discount the car rental by 10% or more.
While EV Rentals has grown as a company, many of the major corporate players have reduced the number of hybrid cars in their fleets. Many of these companies have cited difficulty in obtaining hybrids in large numbers or being able to sell their hybrid cars at a profit to an increasingly environmentally aware public. One such example is Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The St. Louis based company has shed about 2,700 hybrids because so many drivers want to buy the few that are made. Hertz, which has hybrids for rent mostly at a few West Coast locations, also has cut its fleet to just “a few hundred” hybrids for rent, spokesman Rich Broome says. Hertz instead has been marketing its “Green Collection”, an assortment of high-MPG, low-emmission vehicles as an alternative to those who want to rent a hybrid car. Dollar, Avis and Alamo don’t stock hybrid cars nor do these companies have any plans to offer hybrid cars for rent.
Hybrids also cost several thousand more dollars than regular cars of comparable size, an increase figured into the rental price. But Neil Abrams, of car-rental advisory firm Abrams Consulting Group in Purchase, N.Y., sees that changing: Car makers “have committed to building more of these things,” and that could spur a price drop, he says.Hybrid specialist EV Rental Cars, based in Los Angeles, says it has doubled its fleet size in the last two years and now stocks the cars in eight Western cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Still, the company, which charges $35 to $50 a day, has a fleet of just 400.
Meanwhile, over the past few years Enterprise Rent-A-Car has shed about 2,700 hybrids because so many drivers want to buy the few that are made. Hertz, which has hybrids for rent mostly at a few West Coast locations, also has cut its fleet to just “a few hundred” hybrids for rent, spokesman Rich Broome says. Dollar, Avis and Alamo don’t stock hybrid cars.
Hybrids also cost several thousand more dollars than regular cars of comparable size, an increase figured into the rental price. But Neil Abrams, of car-rental advisory firm Abrams Consulting Group in Purchase, N.Y., sees that changing: Car makers “have committed to building more of these things,” and that could spur a price drop, he says.
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