Car rental and taxi companies shift to hybrids

“With gas being what it is, you just have to whup me to take this car away from me,” says Bob Spence of his Toyota hybrid, a veteran cabby of 31 years, who most recently was behind the wheel of a Ford Taurus.

When Spence first began driving this new Toyota Camry hybrid as his taxi, he wasn’t impressed and said that didn’t want anything to do with the “trashy thing.”

The Fort Worth cab driver thought the car had broken down after the gas engine shut off when he was on a test drive last year. Now, after driving the car 61,000 miles, this Wilford Brimley look-alike says he can’t imagine life without his new high-tech taxi. His gas bills have been cut in half.

Spence isn’t alone on this point. Record-high prices for gas have convinced more and more taxi and rental-car companies to purchase hybrid cars for their fleets, as the hybrids use electrical power whenever the gas engine is off.

Many companies, such as Yellow Cab and Enterprise Rent A Car, first got involved with hybrids last year to show their environmental friendliness. Now, with the gas price crunch, the rollout of hybrids has turned up in earnest.

Rental-car and taxi companies both in Texas and nationally are adding hybrids to their fleets at a time when consumers are choosing them for their private vehicles as well.

www.enterprise.com