Leading car hire company, Hertz, have revealed plans to launch electric powered hire cars in the US by Christmas.

The first fleet of electric cars will be introduced in Manhattan, New York City, next week. Hertz dropped a big hint that eco-friendly car hire was about to be introduced when they pitched up at the busy Times Square in New York this week to give demonstrations of the new electric vehicles, which will soon become part of their fleet.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Nissan Leaf are two of the electric vehicles which will be available to hire through Hertz. However these green cars will only be available to Connect By Hertz members which is a car sharing scheme. It is not known whether the electric cars will be available to hire by non Connect members within the coming 12 months.

It has been reported that Hertz plan to have 1,000 electric powered vehicles within their fleets across the US by the end of 2011.

The first 20 electric cars will form part of the Manhattan branch of hire cars however electric cars are also coming to branches in San Francisco, Texas and at selected College campuses. Outside of the US, Hertz are planning to launch electric car hire in both London and China within the coming 12 months.