Electric cars and the rental market seem made for one another. While you’re not easily going to be able to make huge long-distance family trips in an electric rental car, all electric rental cars are ideal for visitors to larger cities throughout the U.S., be they on holiday or stop-over business trips.
Hertz and Enterprise have already shown a keen commitment to the electric car market segment, with promises to buy 2011 Nissan Leafs for both European and U.S. rental locations. But Nissan isn’t the only electric car automaker to benefit from the green drive in the rental market.
As it turns out, Coda Automotive is set to get a piece of the action too.
Just last month, the Santa Monica based firm announced its MSRP for its 2011 Coda Sedan, a car the firm hopes will win the rush to become the most popular electric car on the market.
But at $44,900 before federal rebates, a massive $12k price disadvantage over the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the Coda represents a huge outlay for any private buyer.
To rental firms keen to monetize on the environmentally conscious rental market, the Coda Sedan represents a smart business move.
Enter Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Already set to receive 500 2011 Nissan Leafs later this year, the multi-national car rental firm will purchase 100 of the 2011 Coda Sedans to use at select locations throughout the U.S.
With more than 5,000 offices nationwide, the electric fleet represents a tiny percentage of the total number of vehicles rented by Enterprise on a daily basis.
While the 2011 Nissan Leaf is more of a well-known car, Coda say the 2011 Sedan has a range-per-charge 20 miles more than its Japanese rival.
Enterprise already offers hybrid rental in more than 30 major markets in the U.S, and offers customers the chance to offset the carbon dioxide emissions the rental cars produce. The addition of the 100 Coda Sedans to its fleet underlies the company’s commitment to going green.
When can you reserve an all-electric rental from Enterprise? At the moment we’ve yet to hear which markets will be served by the 600 strong-and-growing fleet of electric cars, but we’d expect most of the Enterprise EV fleet to head to San Francisco, Los Angeles and perhaps New York.
And remember, if you can’t afford your own electric car yet, or want to have an extended test drive this could be the perfect opportunity to experience everything an electric car has to offer.
