Why rent a hybrid for driving in Helsinki?
City driving is a hybrid’s home ground: pulling away is quiet and smooth, and stop-start traffic is less tiring for the driver. Because this is a full hybrid, there are no charging points to look for – the rental car is refuelled in the ordinary way.
A hybrid is also an easy choice when the journey continues outside the city. You can refuel at any service station, so there is no need to plan the route around charging points and no rental time lost to charging stops.
Hybrid cars in our fleet
There are three hybrid size classes. Each has five seats and air conditioning, and all are driven on an ordinary category B licence.
- Small passenger car – nimble in town and easy to park, when there are one or two of you.
- Small SUV – a higher seating position and more ground clearance without the dimensions of a big car.
- Mid-size SUV – the roomiest of our hybrids, for a family or a longer trip.
The load volumes stated by the manufacturer and the other details are on each class page.
A hybrid is booked directly in the booking system
The hybrid classes appear in the site’s booking system in the same way as our other passenger cars, so you see availability and the price immediately and no separate enquiry is needed. The booking goes like this:
- Choose the pick-up location and time in the booking system.
- Choose a hybrid class: small passenger car, small SUV or mid-size SUV.
- Fill in your details and confirm the booking – you will get a confirmation by email.
- Collect the car at Ratapihantie 11 and set off.
How a full hybrid works in practice
A full hybrid has both a combustion engine and an electric motor with a battery. The car decides for itself which one to use: pulling away and driving at low speeds often happen on electricity, and the combustion engine starts when more power is needed. The battery charges while you drive, for example under braking, so no charging cable is needed.
For the driver this mainly shows as a car that is quiet when moving off. Otherwise a hybrid is driven like any petrol car – and filled with 95E petrol.
Tips for driving a hybrid in the city
- Pull away gently: the car then stays on electricity for longer.
- Braking early feeds energy back into the battery. A long coast up to the lights is a hybrid’s friend.
- In winter, heating the cabin uses energy – allow a little more time for short trips.
- Fill up with 95-octane petrol. No charging is needed, and none is possible.
Who is a hybrid rental for?
A hybrid suits you particularly well when most of your driving is in the city and the surrounding area. Commutes within Helsinki, errands around the capital region and day trips nearby are exactly the kind of driving where the electric motor is used most. A longer holiday trip also works without special arrangements, because refuelling is possible at any service station.
If you have not driven a hybrid before, it is worth knowing that you do not need to learn a new way of driving. The car starts, moves and stops like an ordinary petrol car, and we go through all the controls with you at pick-up. No separate charging card or app is needed.
Hybrid or fully electric?
In practice the difference is charging. A full hybrid is never plugged in: it is filled with petrol like an ordinary car, and the route does not have to be planned around charging points. A fully electric car runs on electricity alone, and charging is part of planning the journey.
You can book the hybrid classes straight away in the booking system. A fully electric car is not part of our standard fleet, but you can ask about availability separately – read more about electric car rental.
Picking up a hybrid in Itä-Pasila
Our office sits between Tripla and the Messukeskus exhibition centre, so you can collect the hybrid after arriving by public transport. It is a few minutes’ walk from Pasila station. During the winter season the cars have winter tyres, and we go through the controls with you at pick-up. See the directions to the office.
Hybrid or petrol car for rent?
If you drive mainly in the city, renting a hybrid is the natural choice. If you want the largest possible load space, our fleet also has petrol alternatives: the estate and the large estate have the biggest load spaces of our passenger cars.
All the size classes and their details are on the Rental Cars page.
