Need For Alternative Fuel Vehicles By Lotus Car RentalLotus Car Rental despite its relatively short period of existence is considered one of the most reliable car rental companies around.
Lotus Car Rental provides customers with a variety of cars of all types, meeting all their customers’ needs with cars from 600 cc to 3700cc, including multipurpose vehicles (MPV), jeeps, minibuses (8-9 seats) as well as luxury cars for formal occasions. Lotus Car Rental has an experienced staff force who work very hard seven days a week. These members of staff provide information on their fleet of cars, special offers and answer any queries a customer might have.The cars offered by lotus car rental like other vehicles run on petroleum fuel and that is why there are high performance cars on your fleet.
Since 1999, however, the cost of petroleum fuel has been on the increase. As at today the price of crude oil, the British Brent (Bonny Light) at the international market is oscillating around $65-$70/barrel (Energy Report, 2006). It actually peaked at $71 in the month of April.This high cost of crude oil in the international market translates to high cost of the refined petroleum products: gasoline, diesel, etc.
This causes a problem for car owners or users as the fueling of these vehicles becomes rather difficult. Consumers of the services provided by Lotus Car Rental are not left out of this problem of fuel.With this rise in the cost of fuel, Alternative Fuel Vehicles are becoming even more attractive to the consumers. After conducting a thorough research, I have the opinion that Lotus Car Rental Corporation should invest in the purchase of a small fleet of Alternate Fuel Vehicles in a test marketing effort.
This way Lotus Rental Car can reduce expenses and increase their customer base as by adding alternative fuel vehicles to their fleet, cost of renting a vehicle will reduce and thus more people will come to employ the services of Lotus Car Rental because of the lower cost and the quality of service that is the trademark of lotus car rental.An alternative fuel vehicle or AFV is any vehicle that runs on an alternative fuel. There exists a wide variety of alternative fuels, excluding gasoline and diesel-for powering vehicles. Examples of such fuel include compressed natural gas, and the dilution of petrol with methane.
There are also reports of solar powered vehicles but they are not yet at the production stage yet. In Europe, bio-diesel has been deployed to use as well as bio-gas.Some of these vehicles that use alternative fuel can be specially ordered from the manufacturer, already adapted to accommodate these alternate fuels. In the case of hybrid cars, no special order is needed as models have been on the market since 1999 and are increasing in popularity.
Also, as the name hybrid implies, hybrid cars can be customized in the Lotus Car Rental workshops.In the non-commercial arena, hybrid vehicles and 100% electric fuel vehicles are more widely used than other alternate fuel vehicles at this time. Commercially, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has become very popular especially in the public transportation industry. According to the “Transit Resource Guide” a publication of the American Public Transportation Association, “As of January 2001, approximately 25% or all new buses on order in the U.
S. are natural gas-powered” (apta.com, 2003).Looking from the economical perspective, the average cost of fueling a car costs about 80¢ and the average tank of a vehicle has a capacity of 40-60 litres.
This means it will take about $32-$48 to fill a tank. For high performance multipurpose vehicles these figures could be a lot higher. It will thus make plenty sense if alternative fuel vehicles are used.In using alternative fuel vehicles, cost of fueling will drastically drop, by as much as 40%, cost of obtaining the services of Lotus Car Rental services will drop, the quality of service will remain and thus, customer base will grow while retaining old customers.
Since upon delivery of the vehicle to the renter, he pays for the fuel, a lot of car renters will be happy to have a car that will not cost them huge sums of money to fuel.The cost of fueling apart, alternative fuel vehicles also have low emission level, this makes it more environmentally friendly than the petroleum fuel burning vehicles. This no doubt will attract the environment friendly potential car renters to patronize Lotus. It is also a major campaign strategy that can be adopted by Lotus in its adverts.
Investing in alternative fuel vehicles by Lotus thus does not just help potential clients to cut the cost of running the vehicles they rent; it also shows love and friendliness to the environment because of the low emission level.Like mentioned earlier, these alternative fuel cars can be ordered from manufacturers or bought or customized as hybrid. To order from manufacturers will be relatively easy for a company like Lotus Car Rental services. This order can be made on hire purchase from the companies.
The reputation the lotus car rental brand has built for it self should make this an easy thing to do.It is well noted that in undertaking this venture, Lotus is venturing into largely uncharted territory, but then, it is an investment whose time has come. Compressed natural gas, propane, methanol, and ethanol are growing in popularity as fuel sources, as more vehicles are being made that can burn them. It is a strong feeling among researchers that the popularity for hybrid vehicle will continue to increase; Lotus must be ready to capture this demand.
6-Liter overhand cam SEFI (Sequential Electronic Fuel Injection) V8 engine and has a driving range of approximately 240 miles. Bio-diesel burning vehicles have very low exhaust emissions and bio-diesel is usually cheaper for the consumer to purchase. Ford Crown Victoria: This natural gas sedan comes equipped with a 4. EV Rental Cars was the first rental company in the nation to have a fleet of hybrid vehicles.
The idea of starting with a small fleet of these alternative fuel vehicles in a test-marketing attempt is to observe the reaction of the market to these alternate fuel vehicles and see what move to make next. If the market responds positively, then Lotus can consider acquiring more to expand the fleet of alternative fuel vehicles. Otherwise the idea can completely be dropped. But this project can only be successful as more and more people are looking for alternative sources of fuel for their vehicles.
Recently, the president of the United States of America, Mr. George Bush tasked American scientists to come out with alternative source(s) of fueling to combat the high cost of petroleum fuel (Washington post, 2005).EV Rental Cars and a lot of other car rental services have fleets running on alternative fuel and have made tremendous success from this venture. Their customer base has grown in huge proportion.
This means their turn over also grows and profit will also grow with growth in turn over.With these arguments advanced, the market for alternative fuel vehicles can only grow. It will therefore mean that any serious car rental company that wants a hold on the market has to put fueling consideration into perspective. This only demonstrates to your customer how much you think of them and are ready to tailor your business to suite their demands and economic position.
Customer loyalty can also be bought by this singular course of action.The availability of the alternative fuel should ordinarily be another source of concern. But then alternative fuel has become so popular in Europe and the Americas. Ethanol in particular has become so popular.
Nigeria, the largest producer of cassava has taken the initiative to produce ethanol for export to the Europe and Americas where it is being used for fuel. The government also has a policy to mix petrol with ethanol to reduce the cost of fuel and also make the fuel more environmentally friendly. For the production of ethanol, the demand for cassava has also been on the increase (Adamu, 2006). This means alternative fuel will always be available.
References1. Nigerian national petroleum corporation energy report, first quarter, 20062. www.apta.
com, 20033. www.washingtonpost.com, 20054.
Adamu, B.G., Poverty Reduction Through Cassava Cultivation, Sokoto, 20065. http:Lotus Greece car rental luxury cars in Atheens Greece.htm, 2006
