Hybrid Car Rentals at O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is a Chicago airline system offering connections to many cities worldwide. It is the largest hub of United Airlines and second largest hub of American Airlines. Over the years the O’Hare International Airport has become one of the three busiest airports in the United States. If you’re traveling to Chicago, you have a number of choices for renting hybrid cars for business or pleasure trips.
ACE Rent-A-Car recently upped their fleet of hybrid rentals but still have problems keeping up with demands. While the company is trying to make hybrid car rental in Chicago effortless and therefore allowing you, the traveler, to be more earth friendly, here’s a notice on ACE Rent-A-Car’s website at the time of this article regarding the Toyota Prius Hybrid:
We are sorry, due to exceptional demand, we cannot confirm any additional car rental reservations for the Toyota Prius hybrid. If you are interested in the best gas mileage in you car rental please consider these ACE rental cars with good fuel economy:
Chevy Cobalt – 31 Highway MPG
Ford Focus – 34 Highway MPG
Toyota Camry – 31 Highway MPG
Toyota Corolla – 38 Highway MPG
So it looks like rental car companies are running up against the limit of their relatively small fleets of hybrid rental cars. And this should continue as consumer interests still appear to be strong.
Other car rental companies also vie for your business. On the lower level of the airport near baggage claim you can find courtesy phones to Alamo, Hertz, National, Avis, Budget, Dollar, and Enterprise rental companies which can all help with various types of cars. Alamo, National, and Enterprise together offer a large variety of hybrid rentals. Because these three companies are all owned by the same parent company Enterprise, they may be able to help each other in finding you what you need. Most often the availability is more exclusive when you call and reserve your hybrid rental car in advanced. Reserving in advance your hybrid is the best way to insure you actually have a car available that you want upon your arrival. Hybrid rentals are especially hard to get at the last minute, so good luck if you’re counting on choosing one off the lot. For Enterprise, follow this link directly to their webpage to rent a hybrid car in Chicago.
Here’s what you you’ll do once landed at O’Hare. Go to the lower levels of the Terminals 1, 2 and 3, near the baggage claim areas. There you’ll find signs and courtesy phones to all car rental agencies. If you’re in Terminal 5, then you can find rental car courtesy phones on the lower level there. Like in many major airports, it’s most convenient to just hop on one of the courtesy buses that will take you to specific rental car lots.
Below is the map of O’Hare International Airport, courtesy of flychicago.com. Click on the image to view a high resolution version in PDF. Additional maps and resources can be found at flychicago.com.
