Car Rental Hybrid
The availability of options to rent a hybrid car have skyrocketed in recent years. The trend of hybrid car rentals was started by Fox Rent A Car on their locations, and was soon followed nationwide by the majors, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Hertz. The majors have added thousands of hybrid cars to their available fleets in recent times and the demand for such vehicles seems to grow by the day. Up until late 2007, the availability of hybrid cars was mostly limited, not by demand, but by the limited supply from the manufacturers, which is also why so many consumers had to wait for their hybrid cars on a waiting list at the time. As an example of how the supply limited availability in 2007, Toyota has stated that less than 5 percent of their manufactured hybrids went to fleets, a category that also includes governmental and corporate fleets. For example, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has estimated that they will have some 8,000 hybrids in their nationwide fleet by the end of 2009. Avis-Budget and other major car rental companies have also been increasing the amount of hybrids in their fleet radically as well. For many car rental companies, the hybrid cars are their part of green consumers gaining more importance. In addition, if you can rent the hybrid car close to the price of the traditional version, the cost savings on fuel are a major factor for consumers as well. Because not all hybrid car rental locations have hybrids in their fleet, however, you need to plan well ahead to be able to get your hands on a rental hybrid car. Of the different rent a car companies, Enterprise has an estimated 8,000 hybrids, including Toyota Prius, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and Ford Escape Hybrid models. Hybrid cars are also available from National and Alamo, which are subsidiaries of Enterprise. Hertz, in comparison, has over 4,000 car rental hybrid cars, mostly in the top airport location throughout the nation. For Avis/Budget brands, their inventory is estimated to be over 3,000 hybrid rental cars. Their Prius vehicles are located mostly in California and Florida, as are their Nissan Altima Hybrids and Ford Escape Hybrids.
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