Leading Car Rental Company to Provide EV Stock by End of 2010-

Beginning December 15th, 2010, consumers in the Manhattan, NYC area will be able to rent electric vehicles by the hour from Hertz. The innovative ConnectByHertz “car sharing” service will have a stock of at least 20 electric vehicles (EVs) by mid 2011. By the end of next year, the rental company plans to expand its services to Washington D.C., Texas, San Francisco, London, China, as well as up to 50 college campuses throughout North America. Hertz expects to have a total of 500 to 1,000 all-electric cars available throughout the United States by the end of 2011. Rich Broome, head of communications for Hertz, says the number of EVs that will be purchased by the company for rentals will heavily depend on how many are made available by the manufacturer. According to Broome, Hertz intends to purchase the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Nissan LEAF, Chevy Volt, as well as EVs from Coda and Smart. The company is currently in negotiations with various charging station makers and electric utilities to guarantee plenty of charging stations at Hertz properties where EVs and plug-in hybrids will be made available to the public. “Traditionally in the U.S., a mark of adulthood is owning a car. Those habits are changing in some places, especially cities and college campuses for some good reasons. They’re not just environmental but personal financial reasons. We can help people think around the question: do I really need to own a vehicle? We want people to be able to try these new EVs out, for something around or less than $10 an hour. When they do, hopefully they’ll see the cars are fun to drive, they handle nicely, the braking is smooth and they have nice acceleration,” Broome explains. Hertz has begun taking reservations for electric cars at Hertzev.com.