Avis Committed to Provide Hybrid Rental Cars to Travelers
Keeping up with and fending off its fiercest rivals in an industry suddenly obsessed with all things “green,” Avis now offers hybrid rental cars. During the summer of 2007, Avis caught the first wave of hybrid mania, building the core of its fleet of hybrid rental cars by introducing more than 1000 Toyota Prius hybrid models in its major markets.
The hybrid car rental math works out to consumers’ benefit, because hybrid cars like the Prius average upwads of 50 miles per gallon (mpg). Although hybrid car rentals average $10 to $15 more per day than their conventional engine counterparts, fuel savings more than offset the slightly higher rate. If a Prius renter drives just 500 miles, he or she will save up to $30 in fuel costs, even when fuel prices hover below $2.50 per gallon.
Late in 2007, Avis added 1000 Nissan Altimas Hybrid to its fleet of hybrid rental cars, but it made them available only in California where demand remains highest by a considerable margin. A standard mid-size sedan, the Nissan Altima Hybrid offers considerably more passenger room than the Toyota Prius, and it has a lot more trunk space. Because of its larger size, longer and wider wheel base, the Nissan Altima rides smoother than the Prius, and customers say it drives like the best European Touring sedans.
Meanwhile, throughout 2007, Avis continued acquiring Prius hybrids, making them more readily available in all the nation’s major markets, and growing the fleet to the point that its agents could guarantee availability of hybrid rental cars at all of Avis’s major outlets. 
By the middle of 2008, Enterprise Rent-A-Car operated a fleet of more than 3,000 hybrid rental cars, which complement its 41,000 flex-fuel cars and light trucks.
Like Hertz, which dominates the airport market, Avis focused its acquisitions on the Toyota Prius, arguably the best-engineered and definitely the most popular of all the hybrids on the American market. Equipping their Prius hybrid rental cars with customers’ favorite amenities-air conditioning, automatic transmission, and AM/FM stereo with CD player-Avis expects to capitalize on Prius’s popularity among younger drivers and eco-conscious families.
Not surprisingly, demand for Avis hybrid rental cars remains strongest throughout California, where gas prices consistently have stayed at least a dime above the national averages. In the San Francisco Bay Area, where economy, traffic congestion, and sky-high gas prices combine to make Avis hybrid rental cars an extremely attractive alternative even to bargain-basement sub-compacts, demand for Avis Prius models has remained steady.
In the greater New York City area, where the cost of everything is higher than anywhere else, demand for Avis hybrid rental cars also has outstripped demand for all other small economy cars.
A quick check on Avis website finds the following rates for the Toyota Prius. One weekday rental in mid May 2009 from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will cost you $160.99. Add $55.96 of taxes and surcharges and you’re up to $216.95 per day. That’s pretty steep for one day rental. On the other hand, a week’s rental of the Prius in mid May, 2009 will cost $564.99 and with taxes and surcharges the total comes out to $717.45, or just under $102.50 per day. 
Regardless of which car you rent from Avis, you can use the links below to get great discounts for hybrid car rentals.
Toyota wholeheartedly embraced Avis’s addition of Prius to its hybrid rental cars, expressing confidence that rental customers would like the way the Prius feels and handles, and they especially would appreciate dramatic savings on gas consumption. Toyota executives confidently predicted Avis hybrid rental cars’ popularity would drive their sales, and preliminary market research has confirmed their predictions.
As the Avis hybrid fleet has expanded and demands remain high, it is expected that rental rates will continue to come down. Going into spring and summer 2009, the average rate for a Prius will probably continue to run at about $95 per day; insurance and local charges would drive the average to just about $100 as noted above. Market analysts say more and more business travelers and tourists willingly will pay the slightly higher rates for hybrid rental cars, because they understand how fuel economy contributes to overall savings, and because they recognize how hybrids help reduce greenhouse gases and save precious fossil fuels.
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