"Those who produce and sell flex-fuel vehicles and E85 fuel need to know that if they make it, we will buy it—and we will encourage our customers to use it, as well." says Matthew Darrah, a top executive with Enterprise Rent-A-Car's North American operations. He refers to the worldwide auto-rental chain's newly designated E85/FlexFuel branch located in the nation's capitol. This announcement from Enterprise, owner of the world's largest privately held vehicle fleet in the world—nearly 1 million vehicles—was made in late June, not long after the District of Columbia's first public E85 refueling station opened its doors at Georgetown Chevron on Wisconsin Avenue.
Enterprise states this move is its latest addition to a comprehensive, long-term environmental stewardship platform. Not only does it own the world's largest fleet of vehicles, but it also owns more flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs) than any other fleet owner on the planet, totaling 41,000 E85-capable cars and trucks. More than half of the company's rental fleet at 1029 Vermont Ave. NW in Washington, D.C., provided by General Motors, will soon be FFVs, which amounts to 50 vehicles. According to Enterprise spokeswoman Lisa Martini, FFVs at the capitol rental office will be refueled with VeraSun Energy's VE85 supplied to the Georgetown Chevron E85 station. Enterprise is also outfitting its FFVs with customer information on where to find E85, and the environmental benefits of using it. "Folks are coming in and asking questions about E85, and awareness is picking up," Martini says. While Enterprise will do its best to accommodate requests for E85-powered vehicles, the company—like most other vehicle rental businesses—doesn't typically make rental guarantees on particular makes and models. However, it will guarantee class and size reservations. With more than half of its rentals soon to be FFVs, odds favor FFV availability.
In mid-July, further developments based on Enterprise's recent success in Washington, D.C., were announced. Enterprise has agreed to concentrate fleets of FFVs at its designated E85/FlexFuel rental outlets strategically located near E85 stations nationwide. "D.C., kicked it all off," says Martini, referring to the company's decision to move forward with this effort. She says it takes significant operational work to group the FFVs together, and the focus now is to determine the best, most efficient approach to concentrating Enterprise's 41,000 FFVs at the right locations among its 6,000 existing U.S. branch offices. The company plans to have more details in upcoming weeks regarding where the next batch of E85/FlexFuel branches will be located.
The recent moves by Enterprise complement previous environmental measures undertaken by the company. Approximately 3,000 gas/electric hybrids are already a part of Enterprise's convoy of rental vehicles. "We try to populate our fleet with vehicles that are environmentally friendly," Martini says. "As a company, we know of the benefits to the environment, but we have to be environmentally friendly because it's important to our customers."
While General Motors and VeraSun are highlighted in this partnership, Martini says FFV purchasing and E85 availability aren't limited to these exclusive players. "We were fueling a thousand of our flex-fuel vehicles with E85 before the partnership with VeraSun," Martini says.
Earlier this year, Enterprise founder Jack Taylor made $25 million available to create the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. "This is Enterprise's futuristic approach to our environmental effort, helping to offer solutions," Martini tells EPM. "While we are agnostic when it comes to [the advent of a single solution], we certainly know of alternatives, and we believe in alternatives. What we can offer is the commercial platform to test them out."
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