An increasing number of companies are adopting hybrid vehicles as company cars in efforts to further promote environmental activities such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle fuel consumption.

Astellas Pharma Inc., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, will switch its fleet of 2,000 commercial vehicles used by medical representatives to hybrid vehicles beginning in April 2008. The company also intends to establish a joint vehicle management system with Orix Auto Corporation of Japan, aiming to promptly cope with environmental issues. The environmental action plan, which Astellas devised at the time of its marger, includes the introduction of low-emission vehicles as an environmental activity in the sales operation sector. Having actively promoted it, the company expects to attain an initial target of 90 percent introduction of such vehicles by the end of fiscal year 2007.

Kyocera Corp., a Japanese manufacturer of electronic components and photovoltaic (PV) systems, will replace its company cars, which are used for sales activities or transportation between factories, with hybrid vehicles from fiscal 2008. Kyocera currently owns 194 company cars and 15 of these are already hybrid vehicles. The remaining 179 cars will be gradually shifted to hybrids. Full replacement will achieve an annual reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 204 tons, and will save 88 kiloliters of vehicle fuel. The rate of reduction is estimated to be 43.8 percent for both CO2 emissions and vehicle fuel.

http://global.kyocera.com/news/2008/0101.html
http://www.astellas.com/global/index.html
- Matsushita to Replace All Delivery Trucks with Low-Emission Vehicles (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/601-e

Posted: 2008/04/24 02:35:22 PM

TAG Energy , Global warming , Manufacturing industry , Transportation