Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 834 posts

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

#331

Post by kristopolous »

fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

It's Geoffrey Moore's chasm, right on time with respect to market adoption. It's all pragmatist arguments as predicted as well.

You can see a similar dip at approximately the same point in other EV adoption curves, such as Norway: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/norway-electric-vehic... ... That green line, we're in the dip right now.

Since the US is such a big market you can't look at it holistically. You have to look at it regionally (the US has 60x more people than Norway):

https://insideevs.com/news/688779/california-tops-us-ev-adop...

We're talking about the markets with high pickup rate which have recently seen a downtick.

It's only unexpected if you don't study literature of market adoption behaviors of emerging technologies. This lull absolutely was coming. It always does in behavior-based products, especially those with infrastructure requirements. Here it was in broadband for instance at about the same point in 2004: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2006/05/28/part-1-broad...

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

#332

Post by jackmott42 »

fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

Definitely Teslas became less attractive to a lot of people with Musks behavior in the last year. But also interest rates are up, and EV enthusiast market may be saturated, so now you have to win over just regular people.

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

#333

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

phinnaeus wrote: post #324
afavour wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Got a Polestar for a surprisingly cheap price on Hertz recently and I was really impressed with it. If I were in the market I think I’d take it over a Tesla.

Ooof. I own a Model 3 and was really looking forward to my Polestar 2 rental in NZ over the holidays. It felt like a massive downgrade in pretty much every way to me. The biggest thing was the responsiveness, it was on par with a standard ICE vehicle in terms of how sluggish it was. I was incredibly disappointed given that I would love to look elsewhere (from Tesla) for my next vehicle.

Yeah, I rented a Polestar from Hertz and this was my takeaway too: less fun to drive than my 3, clunkier control surface and not particularly better in any noticeable way.

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

#334

Post by Already__Taken »

ender341341 wrote: post #327
fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

Other possible reasons - We're in a recession (at least if you aren't upper middle class or above) - Dealers are still acting like there's a supply shortage, so prices are still up but lots are full - Everyone (pretty much) but tesla has commited to migrating to NACS, so if you buy a car now you'll need an adapter, and depending on where you are tesla's chargers are have half the speed if you're using the adapter (li…

have the speed - half*? the speed maybe?

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

#335

Post by distortedsignal »

ender341341 wrote: post #327
fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

Other possible reasons - We're in a recession (at least if you aren't upper middle class or above) - Dealers are still acting like there's a supply shortage, so prices are still up but lots are full - Everyone (pretty much) but tesla has commited to migrating to NACS, so if you buy a car now you'll need an adapter, and depending on where you are tesla's chargers are have half the speed if you're using the adapter (li…

Tesla's changers are *half(?) the speed...?

I hadn't heard this.

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

#336

Post by pokstad »

fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

From my experience, many Tesla fans don’t agree with Elon and that is okay with them.

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

#337

Post by ohhnoodont »

nate wrote: post #319

Today I also learned, it's dangerous to rent from Hertz. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusa... You might accidentally get arrested for stealing one of their cars. It apparently has happened thousands of times.

Given that your article (from 2022) states Hertz will pay $168 million to people accused of stealing cars, it seems pretty unlikely Hertz is still making that mistake. Seems totally safe to me. Have there been any recent instances of this?

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

#338

Post by pxx »

lend000 wrote: post #275
s0rce wrote: post #137

I rented a Tesla from Hertz once in Houston and the whole experience was terrible. Got to the counter and the agent first suggested that I take a gas car for $25/day. I was confused because that was so cheap, although the Tesla was already heavily discounted. Apparently, this was $25/day above what I had paid for the model 3 and it was for a compact economy car. I stuck with the Tesla. The agent warned me that repair…

Strongly recommend Turo. I tried it recently after a similarly terrible experience with Hertz. Never going to turn back to traditional car rental companies -- it's so much easier, saves you significant time, and is (sometimes) cheaper.

I have never seen Turo be anywhere close to competitive. Are you comparing to rack rates or something?

I'll take unlimited mileage and the lack of weird car rules any day, also. I don't understand the other convenience factors either -- car rental places tend to be located on-site at the airport or the train station?

It's also a lemon market for customers. Turo gets all of the people who aren't qualified to rent at the major car rental places, and the prices are adjusted accordingly.

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

#339

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

I've owned a couple of EVs in my life, and I love them and would never go back to owning an ICE car.

At the same time, I don't think I would ever want to rent an EV. Do I know that wherever I'm staying I'll be able to charge? Sure they said they had a charger but what if it's busted? Also, these days if I'm renting a car (as opposed to just Ubering) I'm usually going to use it quite a bit - having to deal with range anxiety or planning out charging stops is the last thing I want to do.

EVs are great, but the broader infrastructure is still not as convenient as gas. When I've got a car at my house I know when and where I'll charge it, but when traveling it's just an extra hassle I don't want to deal with.

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

#340

Post by oxfordmale »

ender341341 wrote: post #327
fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

Other possible reasons - We're in a recession (at least if you aren't upper middle class or above) - Dealers are still acting like there's a supply shortage, so prices are still up but lots are full - Everyone (pretty much) but tesla has commited to migrating to NACS, so if you buy a car now you'll need an adapter, and depending on where you are tesla's chargers are have half the speed if you're using the adapter (li…

Tesla's consistently score low on reliability and are expensive to repair. I would love an EV but place a high weight factor on reliability.
Post reply on HN