Aug

Avis’ UK fleet now spitting out 4% fewer emissions

Posted by admin Published in Natural Gas, Flex-Fuel, Ethanol, Diesel, Hybrids

Thanks to a variety of CO2 emission-reducing steps (see urls below), the fleet of 18,500 rental cars operated by Avis around the world has reduced CO2 emissions by four percent overall amidst 2005 and 2007. The average per vehicle is now 157g/km per car, a number Avis wants to produce even lower in the future.

As you can read in the press release pasted after the jump, Avis is taking a kitchen sink approach to reducing CO2 emissions: the company is using increasingly diesels in Europe; adding hybrid vehicles in the UK, Portugal and the U.S.; using natural gas vehicles in Germany; and adding lots of ethanol cars in Scandinavia, for example. Avis may not be as green as Bio-Beetle, but Avis cars are available in a lot increasingly locations, making it just easier to be slightly increasingly green at the rental car window.

[Source: Avis]
AVIS ANNOUNCES 4% FALL IN RENTAL FLEET EMISSIONS

Avis has reported excellent progress in reducing the CO2 emissions of its 18,500-strong rental fleet.

Emissions have fallen by nearly 4% to an average of 157g/km per car within 2005 and 2007, and it hopes to see a further fall by the next couple of years. that figure is way below the SMMT’s* average of 167.2 g/km for new vehicles sold in 2006.

Avis has achieved that reduction through working with manufacturers to

add increasingly lower emission vehicles to its fleet, as well as increasing the number of diesels in its key volume car groups.

Cars on the Avis fleet from Citroen, Fiat, Honda and Mazda all generate on average amidst 133 and 149g/km, while Avis has been sourcing increasingly ‘green’ cars higher up the size range.

“We have been working tough to bring down emissions and the work is really starting to pay off,” explained Avis fleet director Paul Hainsworth.

“Ever since we began working with Future Forests, now known as The CarbonNeutral Company(R), in the late 1990s the environment has been a key precedence for Avis and we mean to keep that progress going in the coming years,” he added.

Avis recently introduced 20 Toyota Prius vehicles onto its UK fleet and in February Avis Germany added natural gas VW Tourans to its fleet at 19 locations in 15 cities across the country.

Avis Portugal introduced hybrid cars to its fleet in 2005 and currently operates 50 hybrids across the country, reducing its CO2 emissions by by 50 tonnes. Avis Scandinavia plus offers customers the chance to rent environmentally friendly vehicles with by 400 ethanol-powered Saab 9-5 BioPower cars, 75 Ford Flexi-fuel and 20 Toyota Prius vehicles on its fleet.

Just final week Avis US announced that it will introduce 500 Nissan Altima Hybrid vehicles to its fleet, to add to the 1,000 Toyota Priuses launched earlier that year.

Original post by Sebastian Blanco