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Summary Among the vehicles that Hertz will offer is the E6, a pure electric vehicle made by BYD Autos.
Rental car company Hertz Global Holdings says it plans to partner with General Electric in offering electric vehicles in China and expanding the charging networks needed to run them.An agreement to be signed in Shanghais Auto City of Anting on Wednesday calls for building 770 charging stations in major Chinese cities including Shanghai and Beijing, said Richard Broome, Hertzs senior vice president for corporate affairs.The plan aligns with the Chinese governments effort to promote commercialization of new energy vehicles as a way to reduce oil imports and help curb pollution. Setting up the infrastructure to charge such vehicles is viewed as a key hurdle toward enticing consumers to switch from cars that run on gasoline or diesel.The government has included building up the electric vehicle industry in its current five-year economic blueprint but despite its ambitious plans such vehicles are still a negligible part of Chinas auto sales due to their high cost and inconvenience compared with regular vehicles.Incentives that are likely to be rolled out include easier access to license plates a key concern in cities like Shanghai, where the price of plates obtained in monthly auctions recently surged above $8,000 apiece.Theres a bit of a chicken and egg component, Broome said.Were trying to provide some of the missing pieces, he said. So far, electric vehicle development has been a little pie-in-the-sky. This will make it grounded in reality.Among the vehicles that Hertz will offer is the E6, a pure electric vehicle made by BYD Autos, a battery-maker turned car manufacturer that has been struggling to expand sales of both its conventional and non-conventional vehicles as competition in the industry heats up.We think thats the right car for our purposes. Its a good car and its also got the range, Broome said. The E6 can go 240 kilometers (180 miles) on a single charge about the right distance for the kind of driving most customers would do in Chinas sprawling, traffic-jammed cities.Park Ridge, New Jersey-based Hertz is not the first car rental company to offer electric vehicles in China. That honor goes to eHi Car, a local car rental company that is among the countrys biggest.But eHi Cars only non-conventional offering is the BYD F3DM, a hybrid plug-in sedan available for hire only in the northeastern city of Harbin, according to staff manning the companys rental hot-line.
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