EV Rental Cars, a rental car agency that exclusively offers hybrid vehicles, is rapidly building its fleet in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. As the federal government debates how to alter fuel economy standards, and rising gas prices continue to cause financial hardship for many Americans, business travelers are turning to alternative means of transportation to save corporate coffers from the squeeze at the pumps. Since companies can't put important business travel arrangements on hold, EV Rental Cars is offering a solution to business travelers in the western states – hybrid rental cars.
The hybrid vehicles provided by EV Rental Cars include the Toyota Prius, Toyota Highlander, and the new Honda Civic Hybrid models. Each gets nearly 50 miles a gallon and has a range of about 600 miles per tank of gasoline. Both are half electric and half gasoline-powered cars that seat five passengers. Each is equipped with integrated charging systems, which mean they never have to be recharged from an outside source. Among the other benefits of the vehicles, they use no gas when operating at low speeds (running off of the electric source), and solo drivers are legally permitted to use the carpool lane in California.
"We have a responsibility to the environment and to the economy to help business travelers who are suffering from political foot-dragging and oil company profiteering," said EV Rental Cars Chairman Jeff Pink. During the next six to twelve months Pink is planning on adding as many as 500 hybrid vehicles to the EV Rental Cars fleet in Las Vegas alone, which is one of the top three highest volume rental car cities in America.
"In a hybrid rental vehicle I can drive around Las Vegas for two days and never have to refill the tank before returning to the airport," said Patrick Pharris, President and CEO of Promethean Partners, the advertising broker for the environmentally friendly Las Vegas Monorail.
EV Rental Cars' fleet includes more than 350 cars at 8 locations throughout the country. Airport locations include California sites in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, a site in Phoenix, AZ and its newest location in Las Vegas, NV. EV Rental Cars is an affiliate of Fox Rent-A-Car.
