US car rental firm Hertz has announced that it is to use Chinese automaker BYD’s electric bus, the eBUS-12, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Hertz added electric vehicles from Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault and others to its fleets in the UK, US and Asia earlier this year, but this is the first deployment of electric buses by a rental company at a major airport.

“Hertz is aggressively moving forward with its… programme introducing electric vehicles into its worldwide fleet and testing other electric vehicles as they become available,” says CEO and chair of the company Mark P. Frissora.

BYD’s eBUS-12 has a range of 155 miles on a single charge in urban areas and has already found application in Singapore and Frankfurt.

Hertz says that the eBUS-12 will reduce emissions compared to a traditional bus by 320 kg of CO2 per 150 miles travelled and save the company $76 a day in fuel costs.

Stella Li, president of BYD America, says that the eBUS-12 costs a third less to operate than a conventional vehicle and is much less expensive over its entire lifetime than any other comparable 40” bus.