Europcar and National are going to include their rental car's CO₂ emissions - along with size and transmissions - in vehicle descriptions in the United Kingdom. The idea is that cars will now be grouped according to how much they pollute.

The lowest emissions group will feature vehicles with average CO₂ emissions under 130 g/km. Models falling in this category are the small three-door hatchbacks, such as the Peugeot 107. The highest group will include cars with more than 230 g/km emissions, such as executive saloon automatic wagons like the Saab 9-5 or the Volvo V70.

Europcar announced that the company is exploring all technologies available, such as biofuels and new-tech diesels, in order to create a newer category for cars that emit under 120 g/km.

Related:

• Enterprise Rent-a-car facing problems implementing green initatives
• Orbitz and Avis Budget Group sign deal to rent hybrids from travel sites
• Three major car rental agencies announce CO2 offset program

[Source: Europcar]

Enterprise Rent-a-car has a couple of green initiatives going. First of all, it has a good number of fuel-efficient vehicles (defined as those that get more than 28 mpg, as shown above) including 5,000 hybrids and 73,000 flex-fuel vehicles. Then, it's offering carbon-offsetting for all its customers, which is claimed to be equivalent of "planting the trees in New York's Central Park every 10 days for the next 50 years."

This sounds nice, doesn't it? Well, the fact is that the company can't fully implement this policy. First of all, its flex-fuel vehicles seldom run on E85 due to the lack of fueling stations. Second, less than one in 10 customers so far are paying the extra $1.25 per rental to offset their carbon emissions. And let's not forget that none of Enterprise's vehicle providers (Toyota, Saturn and Ford) can supply its demand. As Pat Farrell, Enterprise's vice president for corporate responsibility says "We've told our manufacturing partners that we want many, many more. You just can't get them."

Related:

• VeraSun Energy and Enterprise will bring ethanol to rental cars
• Enterprise's 50 million tree plan. What are you doing for Arbor Day?

[Source: CNN money]