Car rental giant, Hertz has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Nissan to help bring the carmaker’s electric Leaf model onto the road.
Hertz is now set to become the first firm to publicly rent out the all-electric four seater when the car goes on sale in late 2012.
Under the terms of the MOU, Hertz will develop a program for the roll-out of Leaf models at selected rental sites across the European and American markets.
The Renault-Nissan alliance intends to start mass global marketing of electric cars by 2012. As part of this, the alliance is working with a number of governments, public and private sector organisations across Japan, Europe and the US.
Toshiyuki Shiga, Chief Operating Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. commented: “Our partnership with Hertz is an important step towards our goal of promoting widespread acceptance of electric vehicles. Together with our Alliance partner Renault, we aim to be the leader in zero-emission vehicles which we believe are one of the best solutions for sustaining the growing need for transport across the globe.”
In the future, Hertz and Nissan plan to expand Nissan LEAF electric vehicles into Hertz’s global car share service, ‘Connect by Hertz.’ By applying the same model to car sharing, this would allow the Renault-Nissan Alliance to scale up availability and acceptance of electric vehicles across a wide consumer base in some of the world’s most densely populated cities.
The Leaf, a family-sized hatchback has a top speed of 87mph, a range of 100 miles and can be charged to 80 per cent capacity in just 30 minutes with a quick charger.
