Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars • Hacker News Board

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#101

Post by dawnerd » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:07 PM UTC

repiret wrote: post #76

legitster wrote: post #65

Car rental companies regularly rotate through their fleet. I suspect these are cars that are supposed to go up for resell anyway and they are just not replacing them with equivalents. EVs are already not a good fit for rental cars - I don't think travelers on vacation want to figure deal with a charging plan. It's also really hard to sell even a luxury sedan as an upgrade when everyone wants an SUV. I'd be curious to…

The last time I needed to rent a car, I seriously considered renting an EV. I find them more pleasant to drive, my usage could have been accomplished on a single charge, and Hertz doesn’t penalize you for returning a discharged EV like they do for returning a gas car on an empty tank, so it would have saved me having to find a gas station near the airport on my way out of town. But they wanted more than twice as much…

> Hertz doesn’t penalize you for returning a discharged EV like they do for returning a gas car

depending on the branch they absolutely do. Many now have requirements you have to return it charged to a certain % or be charged just like gas.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#102

Post by FlyingAvatar » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:08 PM UTC

remh wrote: post #98

orenlindsey wrote: post #94

Apparently the big problem is repair costs. They should buy Cybertrucks, those things are indestructible. One got in a head-on collision recently and didn't even get dented, no one in either car was hurt Edit: this is a joke, by the way

that's not how physics work

It can work if the other car took more of the damage than it would have compared to a collision with a "squishier" car. Would be interested to see a Cybertruck vs Cybertruck crash.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#103

Post by pedantsamaritan » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:08 PM UTC

orenlindsey wrote: post #94

Apparently the big problem is repair costs. They should buy Cybertrucks, those things are indestructible. One got in a head-on collision recently and didn't even get dented, no one in either car was hurt Edit: this is a joke, by the way

N=1. Cybertruck driver reported minor injuries: https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/28/24018383/tesla-cybertruc...

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#104

Post by bombcar » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:10 PM UTC

ShakataGaNai wrote: post #93

This is not really surprising due to the business model Hertz was going after. They expect their used vehicles to have better resale values than what they currently have... which is a bunch of Tesla's bought at more or less the peak of pricing and now to be sold when prices have come down to sanity. They rode the market and lost. Also they got a LOT of EV's, I give them props for doing so... but rental cars should be…

Companies like Hertz have a lot of issues that people don't consider, and making another division in the fleet makes it worse.

Over time, one-way rentals tend to congregate specific vehicles in specific areas, and so you have to have ways of "undoing" that. Having EV cars slowly pool in an area is going to be perhaps MORE annoying than just having too many SUVs, because most people will say "ooo free SUV upgrade" but will balk at "ooo free EV upgrade".

That with the double-whammy of dropping resale value (because new ones are cheaper) along with additional customer complaints, means they really have no major reason to continue.

If the EVs were working for them, they'd buy more to replace the ones aging out of the fleet.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#105

Post by elintknower » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:11 PM UTC

This is an absolute dream for anyone with a services business ready to re-up or replace their fleet of vehicles.

Most of these hertz teslas were barely driven and those with defects are generally pretty easy to catch and they're desperate to get rid of them at bottom of the barrel prices.

It almost makes me want to quit my dev job and start a plumbing or electrical biz.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#106

Post by rpcope1 » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:11 PM UTC

orenlindsey wrote: post #94

Apparently the big problem is repair costs. They should buy Cybertrucks, those things are indestructible. One got in a head-on collision recently and didn't even get dented, no one in either car was hurt Edit: this is a joke, by the way

I really doubt that, but one thing that stands out is the usage of stainless steel body panels, which make repairs both harder and more expensive. Go ask anyone that had to repair a Delorean what they think of stainless for body panels..

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#107

Post by remh » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

FlyingAvatar wrote: post #102

remh wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not how physics work

It can work if the other car took more of the damage than it would have compared to a collision with a "squishier" car. Would be interested to see a Cybertruck vs Cybertruck crash.

parent said: "no one in either car was hurt". If the cybertruck didn't have any damage it means that no energy was dissipated by "squishing it", basically it made the impact twice as bad (compared to a regular squishier car) for the occupants of both cars. Maybe indeed no one got hurt, but then it means that the crash was at super low speed.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#108

Post by legitster » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #61

So Hertz is continuing their narrative to blame EV's for their own executive mistakes. If you dig deeper you'll find that: - most of their EV's were rented to Uber drivers. - All Uber rentals, gas and EV, have higher milage, higher maintenance costs and lower resale values. In other words this state of affairs was highly predictable. That it wasn't taken into account is the fault of Hertz executives. They're trying t…

I don't understand the point. They are going to replace the Uber EVs with Priuses or whatever and still save a bunch of money. So what's the argument?

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#109

Post by jetrink » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

I would think that car rentals would be one of the slowest areas for electric adoption. You're immediately limited to people only intending to drive short distances, which is less common for car rentals than day-to-day car ownership. Of those, many will be people far from home where they're not familiar with the charging infrastructure. Maybe they can stay at a hotel with chargers, but what if there are only a couple and they don't get one one night? It just sounds like a way to make planning a trip more complicated.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#110

Post by _ea1k » Thu, Jan 11, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #28

_ea1k wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An hour or two? Noone is hanging out around superchargers for that long if they don't already want to be there.

You might be if you need to return the car at 100%, the last few percent of battery takes forever to charge due to chemistry. I don't know what Hertz requires, but returning it at 100% is stupid. It's hard on the battery and takes forever. Charging to 80% takes a lot less time and is easier on the battery, so hopefully that's all that Hertz requires. Edit: a different commenter says you need to return at 75%. That's…

Yeah, and tbh, I'm hearing that their return fees are actually pretty reasonable. If you can return at less than 75% for only $25, just do that. Supercharging isn't particularly cheap anyway, so you can't save that much money with a long wait.