Hybrid Taxis, Rental Cars, And Commercial Vehicles

The international public acceptance of more fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles is a clear fact. Millions of people have made conscious, individual decisions to “go green” with their personal vehicles. Now, the next wave of critical decision-making that affects the industry and the environment is taking place at a rapid pace and promises to have a far-reaching impact.

Purchasers of large commercial vehicle fleets are getting the message and are committing to advance the cause in numbers that are staggering in the most positive of ways. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced that the city’s famed yellow taxi cabs will go green within five years. One thousand hybrid taxis will hit the streets of New York by October 2008, and the remaining 13,000 taxis will gradually be replaced by hybrids by 2012.

A significant initiative is coming from the rental car industry where several companies are vying to lay claim to become the most fuel-efficient worldwide. Hertz has said it will spend $68 million to add 3,400 Toyota Prius hybrids to its fleet by 2008. Avis is immediately making 1,000 hybrid Prius vehicles available to renters.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the largest vehicle rental company in the U.S., has promoted its efforts with 334,000 vehicles – 47 percent of its fleet – averaging 28 miles per gallon, and 119,000 of those average at least 32 mpg. Enterprise also operates 3,300 hybrid vehicles with plans to significantly boost that number. Over 41,000 Enterprise vehicles operate on FlexFuel – cars that can either use gasoline or E85 – a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Rental car companies are not taking these steps only for altruistic reasons about the environment. This is market-driven change because renters want to practice on trips what they do at home. And, many renters have decided to rent a hybrid first to see how it performs before they make a financial investment.

When you consider that there are well over 100 million rental transactions each year worldwide, and those renters travel tens of millions of miles, the carbon emission reduction potential for our planet is nothing short of amazing. The motivation for this sea change in the commercial fleet industry is as simple and basic as exists in capitalism: consumers want to make a difference in how they consume a product or service.

Like the eco-travel boom of the past decade, consumers are including their vehicle choices in many of the same ways they now choose resorts, hotels, cruise lines, and other factors of their overall excursions.

I would urge all fleet operators – transit companies, municipal and state motor pools, taxis and limousine services, and countless others – to make high-efficiency and hybrid vehicles their requirement when rotating their fleets with new vehicles. We need a sea change in all facets of the vehicular world and it will be the individual who can steer the ship if he or she is committed.

I have always had confidence in the “power of one.” Every one of us makes choices that affect our businesses and our planet. If consumers want more fuel-efficient or hybrid cars when they rent, that’s what the marketplace will deliver. If political figures want to reduce their cities’ emissions, they can bring fleet operators to the table and change the status quo.

From one more accustomed to the ocean, fleets were thought of as the armadas that conquered lands. Fleets of commercial vehicles that are more fuel-efficient or hybrid users of gasoline may help us all conquer our threat to our environment.

Jean-Michel Cousteau is the president of Ocean Futures Society.