My rental car habits tend to fall along two lines: gimme the cheapest thing you’ve got, or give me something quirky and fun. Model 3s are boring but also more expensive than, say, a Corolla. Not to mention the research I’d have to do ahead of time if I’m planning on going any kind of distance in a rural area.
My BIL was initially given an EV on a recent trip. He looked at the range (100ish miles) on the thing, and declined it - he had no clue whether there was any place to charge at the hotel, or elsewhere, that weekend.
I’d be more willing to try one on a longer jaunt with a planned route, where I could research charging opportunities in advance. Especially if I had the time for longer refueling stops (as opposed to ICE: pull off, fill the tank, use the bathroom, done in 10 minutes).
People’s use of rental cars varies dramatically. Sometimes I just need to get to a meeting, a hotel, and back to the airport. Maybe 60 miles total. An EV would be ideal. Other times I’m driving across several states with the family. If that latter, an EV is not a good option unless the person is already familiar with the quirks of EV road trips (or willing to learn).
Were you familiar with EVs before this experience?
From what I recall from a podcast I heard about this, the issue was that renting EVs to people who had never driven one before (and were tired after a long flight and in an unfamiliar city) led to a lot of accidents. And Teslas in accidents are expensive and time-consuming to repair.
I know with renting an ICE vehicle, you either pre-buy a tank of gas or return it full. Is this the same renting an EV? Do you have to stop and charge the rental before making your red eye flight? I could see that being a negative.
Also, Tesla recommends only charging to 80% for daily driving, so how “Full” do they expect you to charge it on return?
Hertz charged $35, which is in the same ballpark as the exorbitant rental gas fee, if you don’t bring it back with substantially the same charge you brought it in with. So if they had only charged it up to 50% they’d want you to bring it back at 50. Not sure what the leeway was. Whereas @GargoyleWB in this thread, and perhaps others report that their experience renting an EV from another company was different, without such a punitive fee.
I think a dollar or two charge for bringing it back with less than full juice is fair, but $35 is too much of a hassle.
It looks like Hertz has been installing chargers, so I guess it was just a matter of too little too late, or perhaps mismanaged. If I were a planner I’d want at least one supercharger per site, located at the cleaning location so that when the car is once-overed and detailed, it can be juiced up, and of course, to stay longer than a few minutes if it absolutely needs more juice. Then I’d try to install cheaper chargers at the places the cars will actually stay at.
Of course it’s possible that the recharge situation was manageable but the $35 was a cash grab.
Let’s consider how it might have been if ICE cars were rented 130 years ago.
“I can’t use that! Where do you get the hay and oats for the horse? And there are no gas stations anywhere! I’m going long distances and there’s no infrastructure for that!”
To echo others; Teslas are the worst EV to rent without a comprehensive tutorial on how to work the damn thing. We tested an older Tesla 3 (actually had turn signal stalks!!!) and couldn’t figure out how to open the frunk. The screen is everything. Imagine getting into the airport late after flight delays and bad weather and trying to figure out how to start, shift, run the wipers, open the navigation etc… while dog tired in a bleak parking garage. The Nav will find and give directions to the extensive supercharger network but you have to open an account; same with Electrify America (fastest DC chargers), Blink, and a dozen other networks. Where’s the adapter for non-supercharger stations? No instructions on how to use them or find the adapters which may be broken/missing.
We leased a Hyundai Ionic 5 and the dealer was barely able to explain some of the features and the car is pretty conventional with stalks for ordinary uses. A 2nd salesman pointed out the free charging at Electrify America included in the lease and that there was a station just a few miles from our place. I checked the car out before leaving and found out the the AC charging adapter/cable/inverter thingy was not in the car. Got one from another on the lot!!
A Tesla rental with no explanation is a disaster waiting to happen. I can understand some of the accidents were probably caused by inattention to what’s going on in front of you while you’re trying to get something on the giant screen. Even more accidents by new drivers actually believing the Autopilot/FSD feature (and not realizing they are beta testers).
I just watched part of Doug DeMuro’s review of the updated 2024 Model 3. Not only did they eliminate the turn signal stalk, they eliminated the “gearshift” stalk. Now you select “drive” or “reverse” by sliding an image of a car in the touchscreen forward or backwards to select the direction you want to go.
I’m not opposed to touchscreens in general, but I think Tesla has taken it way too far with their ethos of using the touchscreen for literally everything.
Elmo has plans for everything. Soon you won’t even need the screen, just think it.
Neuralink — Pioneering Brain Computer Interfaces
Neuralink Implant. Our brain-computer interface is fully implantable, cosmetically invisible, and designed to let you control a computer or mobile device anywhere you go.
I had a lot of concerns about how Hertz was set up when we rented Tesla, but supercharging wasn’t one of them. You don’t need to set up an account. Hertz automatically adds the supercharger fees to your bill when you turn in the car.
Yeah, something Hertz did right. Thanks for the info.
My sister has a Nissan Leaf. About the simplest EV on the market. Controls are very similar to a standard ICE car. Yet even then, the first time I borrowed it my sister had to give me a quick tutorial on how to drive it. I can’t imagine trying to drive a Tesla with no instruction.
That’s fine for owners, but when I rent a car, I don’t want to spend time trying to figure out how to use a new-to-me nav system; I just use my phone. If using that new nav system is a requirement for not running out of charge, then I’m going to try not to rent an EV.
Google maps now has the ability to show charging stations, at least on Android.
I’ve said repeatedly that renting an EV is a poor choice for those not familiar with them. The nav system is one thing that wouldn’t be an issue. It works identically to the nav system that you’re already familiar with using while also showing charging stations.
I just checked and Apple Maps has an easy to set up mode that shows chargers anyway so you could use your phone.
Take a look at Hertz’ market cap and stock price from October 2020 to November 2021 and you’ll get your answer. The announcement that Hertz would go in big on Teslas was made in October of 2021, though you can see that it was anticipated by a couple weeks.
If you haven’t worked for a big publicly-traded company, then you might not appreciate how powerful the management desire for driving the stock price up, regardless of long-term results or even actual profit, is. Believe me, nobody in Hertz management cared at all about how practical renting Teslas would be or how much money they would make doing it over the following few years. I’m not a complete cynic (yet), but I understand that “good business decisions=immediate increase in stock price and market cap” is absolutely the rule nowadays.
If only similar, recent examples could come to mind…
Agree on both counts. The Tesla nav system (at least on the X) is the best I’ve ever used. Very easy.
I prefer Apple Maps via CarPlay but only slightly.
A different perspective, almost totally unrelated to the practicality of using a Tesla or other EV as a rental:
I do not know if the rental business works in the US. Here in Germany the accepted wisdom is that rental car companies’ business model is to buy large numbers of cars at a significant discount, have them in the rental fleet of a year, then sell them used for a price in the neighbourhood of the the initial discounted, price. For that reason (plus car manufacturer’s employees buying cars at a high discount with the proviso that they cannot sell them on for one year) there is a huge number of one year old cars on the German used car market.
In that business model income from renting out the cars is just icing on the cake, i.e. it is not a large hit to the rental company if their customers do not take to EVs.
Only, rental car companies have been burned by Tesla having lowered their prices by a significant percentage, undercutting rental companies’ expected resale price.