September 16, 2002
Business Week
Up Front: GREEN WATCH: Rental Cars That Put the Earth First
BY ANN THERESE PALMER, NEWSWEEK STAFF WRITER
Despite recent bankruptcies in the rental-car industry, a few daring
players are entering a new market: environmentally friendly cars.
Business travelers, many eager to test new technology, are fueling
demand, since they usually drive only the short distances for which the
cars are best suited.
That has prompted Budget Rent a Car to double its eco-car rental
locations to 12 North American cities in the past year. Cars come from
five different makers of electric, natural-gas, and hybrid low-emission
cars via Budget's (BDGPA ) partner EV Rental Cars, which calls itself the
nation's only environmental rental car company. Last year, Hertz (F )
started offering hybrid and electric cars, including the Toyota Prius, in
San Francisco and London. And Enterprise Rent-A-Car began offering
several eco-cars in New York and California last year.
Analysts say the trend is growing. "Renting an environmental car is
novel, it's different, and it's got a cool factor," says Forrester
Research analyst Henry Harteveldt.
EV President Terry O'Day and Enterprise spokeswoman Sarah Bustamante both
say they'd expand if they could just get more cars. "We've got more
demand than we can meet," says O'Day. That may take a while: Toyota's
entire U.S. run of its 2002 electric RAV4 is just 250 cars.
