Europcar Announces Green Partnership with Fiat

Released on: September 1, 2009, 6:46 am
Author: Europcar
Industry: Automotive

Europcar, European car rental firm, has partnered with Fiat to add a new range of eco-friendly cars to their car rental fleet.

The new Fiat models offered by Europcar include the eco-friendly Punto, Grand Punto, Idea, 500, Panda, Qubo and Bravo.

Speaking about Europcar's decision to partner with Fiat, Global Marketing Director Jehan de Thè described how the company's drive to be more eco-friendly meant that Fiat who are currently "the best-selling brand ranked by volumes-weighted average CO2 emissions" was the ideal choice for Europcar.

Greener car rental solutions have become particularly important for the Europcar Group in recent years. In 2008, Europcar became the first European car hire company to be honoured with the Green Charter, an honour bestowed by Bureau Veritas in recognition of the company's green initiatives.

De Thè commented: "Europcar is pioneering an eco-friendly approach to car rental through a number of ground-breaking initiatives. In particular, Europcar undertakes to offer to its customers a vehicle fleet with the minimum possible impact on the environment."

Alongside the alliance with Fiat, Europcar has taken other notable steps to reach environmentally-conscious consumers. Europcar's website now offers customers the ability to assess and compare the average CO2 emissions for each car group within the fleet before deciding to book car hire with Europcar.

The new Fiat car rental range currently includes some of the most eco-friendly car rental options on the Europcar website. The Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda for example offer 110/km CO2 and 113/km CO2 respectively, while other models such as the Fiat Idea and Grand Punto emit less than 120g/km CO2.

As Europcar continues to take the necessary steps to improve the company's green credentials, alliances with companies like Fiat are - according to de Thè - "strategic in achieving this".

About Europcar:
Owned by French private equity firm Eurazeo, Europcar is the European leader in passenger car and light utility vehicle rentals. The company serves business and leisure customers throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Excluding franchise operations, in 2007 Europcar signed more than 10 million rental contracts, with 7,700 employees and a fleet exceeding 215,000 vehicles. In September 2008, Europcar and U.S. market leader Enterprise Rent a Car joined forces in a strategic alliance to form the world's largest car rental network, with more than 1.2 million vehicles and 13,000 locations in 162 countries.

Europcar PR contact:
Dominic Dennis
HSL
Churcham House
1 Bridgeman Road
Teddington
Middlesex
TW11 9AJ
Tel: 020 8977 9132
Fax: 020 8977 5200
www.europcar.co.uk