Enterprise Rent-A-Car Responds to Local Demand for Environmentally Friendly Vehicles; Concentrates Hybrid, Fuel-Efficient Vehicles in Four Atlanta Rental Locations

Company Designates “Green Branches” to make Renting More Convenient

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In response to demand for environmentally friendly vehicles in Atlanta, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has designated its first “Green Branches” in the country at four locations across the metropolitan area.

“For us, environmental stewardship is about sustaining our business for the long term by addressing the parts of the world our business touches. Embracing new technologies like hybrids is a step in the right direction to reduce vehicle emissions and limit our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles will comprise approximately 60 percent of each of the four “Green Branch” fleets, demonstrating Enterprise’s ongoing commitment to supporting the use of alternative technologies and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Each of the Atlanta “Green Branch” fleets will be composed of approximately 30 percent hybrid gas/electric vehicles and 30 percent fuel-efficient vehicles that average a highway fuel efficiency rating of at least 28 mpg. The largest of the “Green Branches” – Buckhead Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car – will offer nearly 50 hybrids available for rental. Additional “Green Branches” in the Atlanta area include Emory Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Downtown Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Dunwoody Area Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

“For the past 50 years, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has steadily grown its business by consistently talking with and listening to its customers,” said Dan Miller, vice president and general manager for Enterprise in Atlanta. “With Atlanta ranking among the top cities in average commute times, customers of Enterprise’s metro Atlanta branches have expressed great interest in renting environmentally friendly vehicles, and we are responding by concentrating the largest number of hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles possible at these four area branches.

“Enterprise is committed to supporting new technologies and alternative fuels as they become commercially viable, and we’ll continue to make them more accessible to our customers,” Miller said.

The four Enterprise Atlanta locations are the first “Green Branches” to be designated by the company in the United States. In the past year, Enterprise has officially designated a total of eight “E85/FlexFuel” branches throughout the country. Enterprise is actively deploying as many of its FlexFuel vehicles as possible near E85 fueling stations nationally, in order to build consumer awareness and increase the number of cars being fueled with E85.

The Taylor family, which owns Enterprise, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car, operates the world’s largest vehicle fleet, which includes 4,000 hybrids, 73,000 FlexFuel vehicles and 440,000 fuel-efficient vehicles.

“In order to be successful in the future, our businesses needs two things – cars and fuel,” said Miller. “For us, environmental stewardship is about sustaining our business for the long term by addressing the parts of the world our business touches. Embracing new technologies like hybrids is a step in the right direction to reduce vehicle emissions and limit our dependence on fossil fuels.”

The Taylor family’s focus on alternative technologies and fuel efficient vehicles is just part of the industry’s most comprehensive environmental sustainability platform. The other major elements of the company’s stewardship commitment are:

• Customer Carbon Offsets – Enterprise, National and Alamo offer customers the opportunity to benefit the environment by offsetting the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of their rental cars. By opting in to pay $1.25 per rental, customers will fund certified offset projects through TerraPass that work to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This cost is based on the average CO2 emissions generated by a rental car operating in the fleet. The company’s charitable foundation will match customer contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million per year.
• Embracing new, clean technologies – Enterprise, National and Alamo also operate the world’s largest fleet of FlexFuel vehicles – more than 73,000 cars and trucks that have the ability to burn E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. In addition, they own about 4,000 gas/electric hybrid vehicles. Nationally, the company is actively deploying as many of its FlexFuel vehicles as possible near E85 fueling stations in order to build consumer awareness and increase the number of cars being fueled with E85, which according to the U.S. EPA can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 20 percent.
• The world’s largest fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles – More than 440,000 cars in the combined Enterprise, National and Alamo worldwide fleet average a highway fuel efficiency rating of at least 28 mpg or better, and more than 237,000 average 32 mpg or better. In addition, 264,000 have earned the U.S. EPA’s SmartWay certification mark – a distinction the EPA grants to vehicles that emit relatively low levels of both regulated pollutants and greenhouse gases such as CO2.
• Research – In 2007, the Taylor family gave $25 million to create the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at one of the world’s foremost plant research centers, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. The institute works to develop acceptable alternatives to finite fossil fuels by finding new ways to create fuel from renewable, reliable plant sources.
• Conservation – The company’s charitable foundation is funding the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years at a total cost of $50 million through the 50 Million Tree Pledge, a public/private/non-profit partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service. The trees are being planted on public lands in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

All told, over the past several years the Taylor family and their companies have contributed or pledged more than $120 million to environmental initiatives. For more information about the full environmental platform, visit www.keystogreen.com.

About Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Founded in 1957, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is headquartered in St. Louis and serves customers in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, and Germany. Enterprise has more than 160 rental branches in Atlanta, and also operates Enterprise Car Sales, Enterprise Commercial Truck Rentals and an Enterprise Fleet Management Division throughout the Atlanta market.

Enterprise is North America’s largest car rental company in fleet size, number of locations, and annual revenue, ranking No. 18 on the Forbes Top 500 Private Companies in America. Enterprise has ranked highest in customer satisfaction among airport rentals in eight out of the past nine years, according to J.D. Power and Associates Rental Car Satisfaction Study. For more information about Enterprise, visit www.enterprise.com.