Clean Fleet Reporthybrid & electric cars smart charged with renewable energy
Think Small – Electric City Cars
Volkswagen’s “Think Small” is ranked as the most successful campaign in advertising history. Electric city cars are a great match for small car lovers. Most city drivers need far less than the range of smaller electric cars which may be limited to 50 miles on highways but double that cruising city streets and benefitting from regenerative braking. The electric city car sales leader is the Mitsubishi i. It can be purchased for $29,125, which is about $6,000 less than the larger Nissan LEAF.
San Diego Gets 300 Electric Cars for Car2Go Car Sharing
I drive this electric smart fortwo to Balboa Park, a popular destination with its vast acres, museums, and famous San Diego zoo. We park the car, sign-off and walk away. If we were paying members, this trip would have cost us only $3 or $4. We got there in minutes without the hassle of car rental or bus transfers. Car2go is a point-to-point car sharing service. You pay 35 cents a minute. If you use lots of minutes your automatically lowered $12.99 per hour. Keep the electric car overnight and pay $65.99 per day.
Hertz Expands Electric Car Rental in United States and China
Hertz expands its Global EV initiative to China, making it the first global rental car company to offer electric cars on three continents. Hertz now offers the Nissan LEAF, Chevrolet Volt, Smart ED, Tesla Roadster and other electric cars in U.S. cities including New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Hertz is expanding the availability of pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids at airports, downtown hotels, university campuses, condos and co-ops and fleets.
Car-Free Vacations – Carefree Commuting
It was an easy walk from our downtown Madrid hotel to the train station. In less than 3 hours on high-speed rail, we crossed the country to Barcelona. I looked out the window as we traveled at 185 miles per hour leaving the hot plains for the cooler Mediterranean. Traveling car free made the vacation relaxed, talking with locals easy, and neighborhoods a joy to walk. Exciting new last mile transit solutions are used by millions including bicycle sharing, P2P car sharing, personal rapid transit, and pilots of new urban mobility
Google’s 70 Charge Stations for Employee Electric Cars and GFleet
Google has deployed more than 70 charging stations at its worldwide headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Over 100 employees who own electric cars use the charging stations, as well as the company’s growing car sharing program for Googlers (GFleet), which includes Chevrolet Volts, Nissan LEAFs and Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrids. With plans for 250 more charging stations on its campus, and a goal to make 5 percent of its campus parking EV-ready, Google’s installation is the largest workplace charging installation for electric vehicles in the country.
Hertz Brings Nissan LEAF Electric Car Sharing to New York
Thanks to Connect by Hertz Car Sharing, cars can be used by the hour for special trips, loading up during weekly shopping, or heading out of the city. Those hourly cars can also be electric such as the Nissan LEAF or Chevrolet Volt. Connect by Hertz is adding the LEAF to Manhattan’s Seward Park Co-op. In an effort to make electric cars a viable option for its residents, Seward Park has installed four Coulomb Technologies networked charging.
Hertz Now Offers Electric Car Sharing
Hertz is beginning to offer electric cars to members of Connect by Hertz, the car sharing service that competes with Zipcar. Starting next week, Connect by Hertz will be offering the Smart ED to New York City members. Hertz is starting with the Smart ED, but will expand next year to include battery-electric and plug-in hybrid offerings from Nissan, Chevrolet, Toyota, and other cars in more cities.
Enterprise Orders 500 Nissan LEAF Electric Cars
Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be renting the Nissan LEAF electric car next year in key locations. In January it will start taking delivery of the LEAF with plans for 500 by the end of 2011. This is the first phase of its plans to offer electric vehicles (EVs) at select offices throughout its neighborhood network of more than 5,000 U.S. locations. I had breakfast with Lee Broughton, director of sustainability for Enterprise Holdings, which owns and operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent A Car, National Car Rental, and WeCar Sharing. Enterprise Holdings owns and operates the world’s largest fleet of passenger vehicles.
2010 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive
The Smart Fortwo is popular with city drivers that need to avoid $25 daily parking fees by fitting in spots to small for others. In 2010, 250 battery electric smart cars will be put on the streets of U.S. cities. Early in 2012, Smart plans to make over 10,000 Smart Electric Drives for sales globally and be a major player in urban electric cars. The new Smart Electrics deliver an 80-mile range per charge with a 16.5kWh lithium ion battery pack that consists of 18,650 Tesla format cells. Daimler owns Smart, Mercedes, and about 4 percent of Tesla.
Zipcar Files IPO with Car Sharing Forecasted for $6 Billion
By 2016, car sharing will be a $6 billion annual business according to forecasts by Frost & Sullivan. Zipcar’s IPO filing shows its market leadership with 400,000 members. An IPO would enable faster growth, other acquisitions, and debt repayment. The firm plans to expand into 100 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, from its current 13 markets. The SEC filing shows that organic growth was only moderate in 2009 and that the firm is not yet making profits.
