Enterprise Names ''E85/FlexFuel Branch'' in Broward County at Grand Opening of E85 Fueling Station in South Florida

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enterprise Rent-A-Car today designated one of its Broward County locations as the rental car industry’s first “E85/FlexFuel” rental branch in South Florida. The Hallandale Beach branch is the newest “E85/FlexFuel branch” announced by the car rental company as part of a nationwide effort to promote the expanded availability and use of new, clean fuels and technologies.

“An important component of Enterprise’s environmental stewardship program is to embrace new, clean fuels and automotive technologies”

Approximately a quarter of the vehicles at the Hallandale Beach “E85/FlexFuel branch” – located at 25 Pembroke Rd. – are FlexFuel vehicles that have the ability to run on E85 fuel, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E85 has been available primarily in the Midwest, but availability is growing in other parts of the country, including the Southeast. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the use of E85 can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent.

“An important component of Enterprise’s environmental stewardship program is to embrace new, clean fuels and automotive technologies,” said Alan Levine, Vice President General Manager of Enterprise in South Florida. “As these technologies and alternative fuels become commercially viable, we’ll continue to support them and work with our partners to educate and encourage our customers to use them.”

To help increase the use of E85 within its own fleet and with customers, Enterprise will ensure that 25 percent of the vehicles at its rental location in Hallandale Beach are E85-capable FlexFuel vehicles, and commit to fueling those vehicles with E85. The branch will also offer customers educational materials about E85 and provide a map detailing area E85 fueling locations.

The Taylor family of companies, which includes Enterprise, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car, owns and operates the world’s largest fleet of FlexFuel vehicles – more than 73,000 cars and trucks that have the ability to run on E85 or gasoline or a combination of the two. The companies also own more than 4,000 gas/electric hybrid vehicles.

In order to build consumer awareness and increase the number of cars being fueled with E85, Enterprise is actively deploying the majority of its FlexFuel vehicles near E85 fueling stations. The Hallandale Beach “E85/FlexFuel branch” joins similar Enterprise branches in Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Grapevine, Texas; and Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio.

To mark the designation of the Hallandale Beach branch, Enterprise fueled several of its FlexFuel vehicles with E85 at the grand opening of the Hallandale Beach U-Gas, one of four E85 fueling stations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The stations marked their openings with a special $1.85-per-gallon E85 fuel promotion by Protec Fuel Management and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).

“E85 fuel offers consumers a commercially viable option for gasoline vehicles,” said Steve Walk, director of Protec Fuel Management, which has partnered with EPIC in several states where the company has helped to make E85 available to consumers. “In addition, E85’s ability to help reduce carbon emissions makes it less harmful to the environment.”

The Broward County E85 station is in Hallandale Beach (Hallandale Beach U-Gas, 990 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd.); Miami-Dade stations are located in Miami (Midway U-Gas, 210 NW 79th Ave.), Hialeah (West Hialeah U-Gas, 7950 West 28th Ave.), and Palmetto Bay (Falls U-Gas, 14395 South Dixie Hwy.).

“In order to be successful in the future, our business needs two things – cars and fuel,” Levine said. “For us, environmental stewardship is about sustaining our business for the long term by addressing the parts of the world our business touches. Embracing renewable fuel blends like E85 and alternative technologies like FlexFuel 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 fuels and technologies is just one important 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. In addition, the company’s charitable foundation will match customer contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million per year.
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 the Danforth Plant Science Center, one of the world’s foremost plant research centers. 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 its 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 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 SM. Enterprise is owned by the Taylor family, which acquired the National Car Rental (www.nationalcar.com) and Alamo Rent A Car (www.alamo.com) businesses in 2007. For more information about Enterprise, visit www.enterprise.com.