Enterprise Orders 500 Nissan LEAF EVs

Enterprise Holdings Inc. announced plans to buy 500 of the all-electric Nissan LEAF vehicles and sprinkle them into the rental fleets of its Enterprise, Alamo and National brands in eight U.S. cities.

Delivery of 500 Nissan LEAFs will begin in January 2011 and will continue throughout the year.

In addition to the LEAFs, the company will offer customers electric vehicles from other manufacturers as they become available.

The sale of LEAF electric cars to Enterprise is the second such arrangement for Nissan, which said in February it would supply LEAFs to Hertz Global Holdings for use in rental fleets in the U.S. and Europe.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car initially will offer electric vehicles to customers across eight different markets where the infrastructure exists to support the vehicles, including Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn.; San Diego; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle. Beginning November 2010, charging stations will be installed at select locations, including several of the Enterprise “hybrid branches” – nearly 100 designated locations which offer hybrids and other environmentally-friendly rental options in 30 different markets. Enterprise is rolling the vehicles out to a limited number of branches to ensure that it can properly train its employees to show customers how to use and charge the EVs.

Through its regional subsidiaries, Enterprise Holdings already operates the world’s largest fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles, including nearly 7,000 gas/electric hybrid vehicles.