New Enterprise vehicles for Highlands & Islands on mobility app

New low-emission hybrid electric cars, operated by Enterprise Car Club in the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland, can now be booked using the Go-Hi journey planning app.

Parked in dedicated bays close to other transport modes, the eight vehicles will enable people to use Go-Hi to book travel for those parts of a trip that are only possible by car.

Enterprise is one of the founding partners of Go-Hi, which launched in June and received additional funding in July from the Scottish government’s Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Investment Fund to improve access to transport across Scotland. 

The app enables users in one go to plan, book and pay for a journey using a variety of different transport options, including Enterprise car hire and car club, trains, buses and ferries, creating a truly integrated transport service.

Murray McAdam, business rental sales manager for Scotland at Enterprise, said: “We’re delighted to add these car club vehicles, which are an important step in creating ‘mobility hubs’ around existing transport services in the Highlands and Islands.

“Local residents, business travellers and tourists alike can now quickly switch to a rental vehicle after taking a train, ferry, bus or plane, making their onward journey much more straightforward, especially to places that can only be accessed by car.”

The four Toyota Yaris and four Hyundai Ioniq cars are being placed in Fort William (two cars), Aviemore (two cars), Ullapool, Kyle of Localsh, Scrabster Ferry Terminal and Wick Airport.

The vehicles can be booked from £5.90 per hour using the Go-Hi app and can be picked up from on-street bays 24/7, any day of the year, and opened using a smartphone.

Enterprise Car Club now has 260 low-emission on-street vehicles across 18 towns, cities and communities across Scotland, providing automated, on-demand rental by the hour or day.

In addition, Enterprise has 27 branches across Scotland, with more planned for later in the year, including three more in the Highlands and Islands region, providing a wide variety of cars and vans that can also be booked and paid for using Go-Hi.

The expansion, Enterprise says, highlights its continued investment in Scotland to provide flexible and sustainable motoring, following the recent addition of 30 Renault Zoe electric cars into its daily rental fleet across the country.

McAdam said: “We are actively facilitating access to electric and hybrid vehicles as part of the regular Enterprise fleet. Many of our cars are plug-in or hybrid to offer more choice and enable drivers to keep an eye on their carbon footprint as they travel.”

Go-Hi has been developed by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS), the regional transport partnership, in association with the Mobilleo MaaS platform.

Project partners include Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Car Club, Bewegen, Brompton Bike Hire, Stagecoach Bus, West Coast Motors, Inverness Taxis, ScotRail, Loganair, Shotl, Skedgo, Orkney Ferries and Northlink Ferries.

Ranald Robertson, Director at HITRANS, said: “Enterprise’s growing fleet will help to encourage people to move away from sole occupancy cars and into shared cars and public transport alternatives when they travel in this region.

“The rise of green tourism means people want sustainable travel, which means low-emission cars that are safe and regularly cleaned. The Enterprise cars tick all those boxes, and we’re delighted they have now added even more options for travellers in the region.”

Go-Hi is funded by the EU North Sea Region Stronger Combined project and the Scottish Government’s MaaS Investment Fund.

The MaaS Investment Fund has been established by Transport Scotland to improve accessibility to public transport services for residents and tourists in the country’s most rural and sparsely populated region.