Enterprise Installs OpConnect Chargers

Enterprise Rent-A-Car has launched a pilot that will see electric car charging stations from OpConnect installed at its California offices in Torrance and Santa Monica. The car hire company has over 5,500 rental locations within 15 miles of 90% of the US population and is in a unique position to introduce electric vehicles to motorists.

OpConnect is a subsidiary of ISO9001 certified Optimization Technologies. It’s a technology leader in EV charging systems, with its product being an end-to-end solution that offers charging stations, a secure wireless communications network, mobile phone applications and billing solutions. The company is focused on the market in Southern California and was recently awarded a multi-year contract to supply charging stations to Los Angeles County. The US Navy also purchased and deployed the stations recently at its facility in San Diego to use for their own fleet of vehicles.

This pilot has been brokered by Go EV, the exclusive distributor for OpConnect. Go EV sells, finances, owns, operates and integrates EV charging infrastructure. Its deep knowledge of the industry and ability to integrate a variety of technologies and disciplines helps its clients solve their infrastructure management and deployment issues.

With this pilot, OpConnect charging stations will be used to recharge the growing fleet of electric cars at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Both locations in Torrance and Santa Monica have several EVs, so the unique quad-port design of OpConnect’s stations will allow the rental firm to use one station to recharge four cars at a time. Other charging stations can only recharge two vehicles at a time. The ability to recharge so quickly will help the car hire operator keep its electric car fleet on the road. Additionally, the stations are networked to restrict charging only to the rental company’s customers.

The market for electric vehicles is growing in Southern California for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, as well as the OpConnect system. Consumers can rent electric cars from 12 of the rental operator’s locations, which is the biggest network of EV hires in the state.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car director of business in Southern California, Greg Tabak says that they are excited to offer consumers a more convenient and faster way to use EVs. Their partnership with OpConnect improves their ability to provide the ultimate test drive to customers who rent an electric car. They have the biggest network of rental locations, which makes them a key part of the value chain. Partnerships like this help automakers conduct hundreds of thousands of test drives that are essential to new technologies being adopted, he added.

OpConnect president Dexter Turner says Enterprise Rent-A-Car has led the adoption of electric cars into their rental fleet, and they are very happy to include these charging stations into their growing infrastructure network. Go EV president Mike Dixon says they are delighted to partner with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to bring this technology to the market in Southern California.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a subsidiary of Enterprise Holdings, which also owns and operates the National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands. It has been recognised in the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 list of Customer Service Champs by BusinessWeek magazine; and has won the 2010 and 2011 Readers’ Choice Award from Budget Travel magazine.