Enterprise Rent-A-Car customers will be offered a free review of their fleet requirements to see if they could switch to electric or hybrid alternatives, after the company teamed up with England's Energy Saving Trust.

The Energy Saving Trust has been running a free program helping businesses to analyze how they use vehicles and identify ways to improve fuel efficiency as part of its Plugged-in Fleets Initiative (PIFI), which is backed by $437,108 of U.K. government funding.

The new partnership will see Enterprise provide its corporate and public-sector customers with access to these consultancy services, which range from calculating the carbon footprint of business fleets to recommendations to reduce cost and emissions and a review of whether zero-emissions vehicles would better meet company needs.

The two organizations already have worked together to help Woking Borough Council introduce a "virtual" car pool that has cut its CO₂ emissions for business travel by 37 percent and cut mileage by 25 percent, freeing up thousands of pounds that can be put towards services for the community.

Andrew Benfield, head of transport services at the Energy Saving Trust, said the partnership would help many companies that "don't always know where to turn" for impartial advice on reducing the costs and environmental impact of their fleets.

"We've worked with organizations that have seen a major turnaround in their fleet costs and carbon footprint by using our products to measure what is really going on and then thinking more widely about the alternatives," he added. "With a national network that is within a few miles of nearly everyone in the country, Enterprise is well placed to help us reach every business in the U.K."

In related news, Ford has announced its all-electric Focus will start at $44,562 on the road, including the government's $7,794 plug-in grant, which makes it more expensive than BMW's i3 and the new Nissan Leaf.

In a statement, the company said initially it will introduce a "low volume" of the vehicles into the country and target fleet customers.

This article originally appeared at Business Green.

EV charging image by ruigsantos via Shutterstock.