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

bloomberg.com

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

#261

Post by bhandziuk »

dawnerd wrote: post #101
repiret wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How much is the fee? It only costs like 7 $ to fully charge.

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

#262

Post by dangrossman »

pengaru wrote: post #176
aweijrawiej wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I charge my Tesla at home and I love it. But I visited family over christmas and driving around in their Rivian I was reminded how absolutely shit non-tesla charging still is. I'm not at all surprised EV sales are dropping when charging is as awful as it is.

Didn't I read in the news that Tesla had opened up its supercharger network to other brands?

Yes, but not in a way that benefits anyone immediately. They made deals with each individual brand (I think every US make except Stellantis now), in which those brands will start putting Tesla charging ports on the cars in future model years, and in some cases offer adapters to existing owners starting in 2024 or 2025. Each brand also needs to integrate with Tesla for payments in some way, since 99.9% of their charging stations don't have screens or payment terminals. The predictions I've read are that will mean new versions of each company's mobile apps, rather than having non-Tesla owners use Tesla's app.

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

#263

Post by hibikir »

throw7 wrote: post #119
houseatrielah wrote: post #114

CNBC did a better job than this low-density article. Why Hertz’s Bet On Tesla Isn’t Paying Off In The U.S. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfbkvUXTV_I "pricing troubles, skyrocketing repair costs and low resale value"... They turn their fleet over every 2-years or so, so resale value is important, and with prices of new EVs coming down, the resale value will be significantly lower than a new model.

But I was told EV's would be much more reliable and cheaper to repair?

And they tend to be, along with needing less maintenance.

Tesla, however, has a ludicrous parts system compared to any traditional car company, for parts that have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the car is using an electric powertrain. Ask for the cost of a new front bumper... it's not pretty.

And as far as fender bender risk goes, it also doesn't help that a Tesla is, in practice, far more powerful at low speeds than the typical car the renter is used to. Pressed the gas pedal when you meant to brake? You'll be in for a surprise. They are also probably unaccustomed to the car's behavior when you lift the gas pedal completely: Being able to do one pedal driving is great if you know the car, but probably a big surprise for someone renting.

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

#264

Post by atkailash »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #183

Not sure about the economics for the rental companies, but for a consumer, there are practical reasons why electric aren't quite as attractive. When you rent a car, more than likely you will be in unfamiliar territory. So it seems that it just adds to the stress of travel and yet another thing you have to pay attention to. Will my hotel have charging spots? Will I be able to charge at the client site I'm visiting? Ho…

I don’t see how that’s different than needing to figure out gas station locations and not knowing how much you’ll use between points since you don’t know traffic or efficiency of that vehicle.

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

#266

Post by moron4hire »

LeafItAlone wrote: post #254
bombcar wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That coupled with customer complaints and annoyance could definitely sour the company on it.

Was customer complaints cited as one of the reasons?

Hertz doesn't care about customer complaints, other than as a KPI that they A) still have customers and B) aren't "wasting" money on such luxury things as making sure the customer's rental is actually available when they contracted for it.

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

#267

Post by NickM »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #78

This is due to high body damage repair costs and has nothing to do with repairing an electric powertrain: >Let me share a bit more context on the damage equation. First, while conventional maintenance on electric vehicles remained lower relative to comparable ICE vehicles in Q3, higher collision and damage repairs on EVs continue to weigh on our results and negatively impacted EBITDA. For context, collision and damag…

where a car is salvaged, we must crystallize at once any difference between our carrying value and the market value of that car

Hang on though, this part has nothing to do with repair costs. This just sounds like an accounting issue, right? If anything I would expect this to benefit Hertz since they could write off the higher loss in their taxes immediately, instead of waiting until future years to write the value off via depreciation.

On the other hand, I can see how this would make their numbers look worse at a glance since it shows up as though they lost money, but in fact no actual assets have been lost; they have the same car, it was repaired, and the repair was paid for by insurance, but now it looks like they took a loss because an arbitrary accounting rule forces them to adjust their balance sheet in a different way than they would otherwise.

Not sure if I'm understanding this right but it sure sounds like Hertz is flat-out admitting that they're making sub-optimal business decisions to make their numbers look better. Wouldn't that be a blatant violation of their fiduciary duties?

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

#268

Post by llboston »

t0mas88 wrote: post #253
1970-01-01 wrote: post #78

This is due to high body damage repair costs and has nothing to do with repairing an electric powertrain: >Let me share a bit more context on the damage equation. First, while conventional maintenance on electric vehicles remained lower relative to comparable ICE vehicles in Q3, higher collision and damage repairs on EVs continue to weigh on our results and negatively impacted EBITDA. For context, collision and damag…

The title says "EVs" but really it's "Teslas" they're not selling their Polestars.

At the moment only 636 Teslas for sale. https://www.hertzcarsales.com/used-tesla.htm

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

#269

Post by mgiampapa »

pton_xd wrote: post #260
rondini wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a second anecdote, I also rented one from Hertz (Polestar 2) and while it could navigate me to charging stations, at least 50% of the time I was unable to charge at a given location due to technical issues. It was bad enough that I had to divert 30 minutes off my planned route to find a working charger. I look forward to owning an EV someday but the rental experience right now and in my state was VERY stressful.

I had the same experience... in Sunnyvale / SF, of all places! I was shocked at how bad the charging infrastructure is for non-Teslas.

Level 2 Tesla destination chargers are everywhere in SV and you can use them with with any J1772 car using a simple adapter.

There are now also adapters for fast charging Tesla connectors to CCS1, but that is relatively recent.

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

#270

Post by yreg »

llboston wrote: post #268
t0mas88 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title says "EVs" but really it's "Teslas" they're not selling their Polestars.

At the moment only 636 Teslas for sale. https://www.hertzcarsales.com/used-tesla.htm

Out of 675 electric cars on sale. We will see.
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