Afv

Lotus Car Rental has a research team on a special project; their assignment is to look up all the different types of alternative fuel. The company main concern is cost of the fuel and how accessible the fuel would be to their consumers. While Lotus Car Rental would like to be one of the first rental companies to add alternative fuel vehicles to their fleet, alternative vehicles most be cost efficient.

Types of Fuels

There are five different types of Alternative fuel; the most discussed is E85- 85% Ethanol with over 556 total fuel station across the country and the average gallon going for about $2.41 cents. (Laughlin, September 2005) The cost per gallon is one of the best prices across the market, but unless one live in Minnesota accessibility would be a problem. Minnesota currently accounts for 182 of the 556 total Ethanol fuel station across the country. The most accessible alternative fuel station is LPG- Propane with 2839 total fuel stations across the country, and 628 of those fuel stations coming from Texas. The average price across the country for a gallon of Propane is going for $2.56 cents. (Laughlin, September 2005)

Then we have CNG- Compressed Natural Gas with 770 stations and a gallon going for $2.12 cents. CNG is the cheapest price per gallon and third largest number of fuel station next to conventional gas. Then we have BD- Biodiesel which has three different blends, (B2-B5) which cost $2.81 average price pre gallon, the (B20) blends goes for $2.91cents, and (B99-B100) is price the highest at $3.40 pre gallon. There are 346 Biodiesel fuel stations across the country and 506 Electric alternative fuel stations. For the consumer accessibility would be a problem considering there a conventional fuel station at almost every street corner across the country. Overall nationwide average price for alternative fuels (with the exception of biodiesel) are lower in price per-gallon than conventional fuel. (Laughlin, September 2005)