{"id":7250,"date":"2015-03-16T12:17:15","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=7250"},"modified":"2015-03-16T12:17:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:17:15","slug":"major-rental-firm-adds-hybrid-cars-to-london-fleet-will-vans-be-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/7250","title":{"rendered":"Major rental firm adds hybrid cars to London fleet: will vans be next?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Avis

Avis has just added 100 Toyota Yaris Hybrid cars to its London car rental fleet<\/p><\/div>\n

Car rental giant Avis has added 100 Toyota Yaris Hybrid cars to its London fleet, flagging up the growing acceptance of hybrid and\u00a0electric vehicles among major fleet operators.<\/p>\n

The Yaris Hybrid cars will initially be available at Heathrow and Stansted airports, plus major central London locations. Availability will\u00a0gradually be extended to Gatwick, Luton and other key south-east locations.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0full hybrids, the Yaris Hybrids are currently exempt from the London congestion charge and boast CO2 emissions of just 75g\/km.\u00a0At low speeds, the cars automatically switch to full electric mode, with the engine firing up as needed at higher speeds.<\/p>\n

Will the\u00a0Avis example encourage any van hire operators to make the switch?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One problem is that with the exception of the 4×4-derived Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV hybrd (plug-in electric vehicle hybrid) — which isn’t really a normal van —\u00a0there aren’t currently any production hybrid vans. All the available models are either all-electric or petrol\/diesel, not hybrids.<\/p>\n

However, given that PSA Peugeot Citroen has a diesel hybrid system which is available on cars such as the 3008 and 508, it’s not an impossible stretch to imagine that\u00a0this system could be adapted to fit the Peugeot Expert van, improving its urban emissions credentials.<\/p>\n

There’s also the Ashwoods Hybrid Transit<\/a>, an aftermarket\u00a0hybrid conversion for the Ford Transit that’s won widespread acceptance and makes a credible claim to\u00a0reduce emissions and fuel consumption by around 15%.<\/p>\n

Hybrid technology seems to be gaining widespread acceptance in the car world, and overcomes the core objections which face electric cars —\u00a0they aren’t suitable for long distances or as an only car.\u00a0I don’t see any reason why hybrid technology can’t start making in-roads into the van\u00a0market, especially as cost-wise, hybrid vehicles are\u00a0increasingly on a par with non-hybrid alternatives, especially when fuel and emissions costs are factored in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Avis has introduced 100 Toyota hybrid cars to its London\/south-east fleet. Hybrid vans could make sense too, but manufacturers are reluctant — will things change soon?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[578,1154,257],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7252,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250\/revisions\/7252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}