Cons of Adding Alternative Fuel Vehicles:

While the benefits of adding alternate fuel vehicles to a rental car company’s fleet cannot be ignored; however, there are some drawbacks. When considering alternative fuel vehicles the first issue is always the cost. According to Edmunds, Inc. (2012), "Generally, a hybrid vehicle can be as much as 20 percent more expensive than its counterpart powered by a conventional gasoline engine” (Price). Consideration must then go to how long will the company have to keep the vehicle in service to recoup the original costs. Typically vehicles are retained for 1-2 years or when the original manufacture’s warranties end due to mileage limitations. We do conduct maintenance while under the manufacture’s warranties. However, the excessive cost of maintenance once the warranty is over and it does not make good business sense to keep vehicles longer. Therefore, return on investment in a short period of time now becomes a serious consideration. Since our customers vary in the types of vehicles they need, we need to look at everything form a compact vehicle to larger sport utility vehicles. As previously mentioned, the cost of either class of car is some 20 percent more and therefore our initial outlay of funding would increase. The Edmunds, Inc. (2012) states “payback” costs for hybrid vehicles can be anywhere from a few years to decades. An issue warranting further consideration is the costs of operating hybrid vehicles. Aside from the type of customer who firmly believes driving a hybrid is good for the environment, there are customers who expect better gas mileage. The one cost the customer pays based on his or her use. Customers expect if they pay more to rent a hybrid, they should see the reason for the extra expense in dollars savings when they pull up at the gas pumps. According to