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Enterprise Rent-A-Car to Buy 500 Leafs

One of the biggest orders for the new Nissan electric vehicle comes from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, who decided to buy 500 of them and rent them to its customers starting January 2011. The rental company says it will make the vehicles available in eight cities (Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, Knoxville, Nashville and Portland), while charging stations will be installed at 100 Enterprise locations.

The news wouldn't have been as exciting for Nissan hadn't GM released a very hard-to-beat offer for its Volt plug-in hybrid vehicle. Now, it all comes down to who makes its car more visible and having a rental company order your car in bulk can do nothing but help the business.

“As a company that owns and operates the world’s largest fleet of passenger vehicles, we have a vested interest and a history of working with manufacturers to integrate alternative-powered vehicles into our fleet,” Lee Broughton Enterprise Holdings director of sustainability was quoted as saying by egmcartech.com.

“With airport and neighborhood locations within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population, our Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices are uniquely positioned to test the market viability of new alternative fuel technologies like the electric vehicle with daily commuters nationwide.”

There are no info available yet on how much renting a Leaf would cost a customer. Nissan is selling the vehicle for $32,780 in the US, or $25,280 with the $7,500 tax credit included. According to Freep, Enterprise Rent-A-Car will not get a discount for the Leaf and will pay $25,280 for one.

Enterprise is not the first rental company to want Leaf's in its fleet. Hertz already announced it will buy the EV this May.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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