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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

#381

Post by nate »

ohhnoodont wrote: post #337
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?

You raise a great point. Maybe they’re good citizens now. On the other hand the Italian restaurant down the street from me was shut down from multiple health code violations including roaches. They’ve reopened. But I’m super hesitant to trust a restaurant that couldn’t stay on top of their roach and other health problems. Or see Apple settling their patent infringement claims and now we’re here again with another patent infringement case. Maybe I’m just too cynical now. I think I’m going to need to see some glowing reviews and press about how Hertz is doing great with customers again.

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

#382

Post by mdavidn »

lgkk wrote: post #358
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…

I used to have a '18 Model 3 Performance (P3D as they were called then) and I sold it after a little less than 3 years. 1. The interior quality was shit. By 10k miles everything was rattling and the quiet nature of the car meant even with bass thumping everything was just annoying af. 2. The car software felt like it got worse. I had bought FSD for $2k back in 2018. I thought it worked fine for that price. As it beca…

I holding onto my hybrid until the industry comes to its senses and realizes that PHEVs are the solution to electrifying daily commutes with sensibly sized batteries while simultaneously sidestepping range anxiety for long trips.

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

#383

Post by rebelde »

hangonhn wrote: post #280
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…

Is there a reason why body damage on an EV would cost more to repair?

Body damage far from the battery for me was normal price. Anything close to the battery was outrageously expensive for me.

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

#384

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

moron4hire wrote: post #266
LeafItAlone wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Please do not look for excuses to post irrelevant rants.

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

#385

Post by UncleOxidant »

Last time I rented a car from Hertz back in November I was surprised how many EVs they had on the lot. I would've thought EV rentals would be kind of niche, but they had several available.

As an aside, I was also surprised that they had a special line/desk that was only for Uber/Lyft drivers and there were people in that line. I guess I would've thought that by the time you paid for the rental costs you wouldn't make any money driving for Uber or Lyft.

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

#386

Post by throwaway15858 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #375
throwaway15858 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of reasons, many of them bureaucratic. If you own your own home in an urban locale with a garage and drive more than 12k miles a year an EV is probably perfect for you. If you live in a condo good luck dealing with the condo board to install a charger. If you park on the street tough luck charging. If you don't drive enough gas is cheaper. If you drive too much you will spend too much time charging. T…

> Modern car parts are full of computers and the aftermarket will never support them because they can't ship copyrighted code. Once a car gets older, there's usually no shortage of the electrical components on the secondary market as they're getting scrapped. And they're easy to ship. Or someone figures out "Capacitor 96 goes bad on Part 420" and solders a new one in. We'll run into problems once they "marry" all the…

>Once a car gets older, there's usually no shortage of the electrical components on the secondary market as they're getting scrapped

Usually the lifespan limiting component is the same on all vehicles of a type so there's a shortage of exactly the part you need which makes it economically nonviable.

>figures out "Capacitor 96 goes bad on Part 420" and solders a new one in.

Car PCB's are often conformally coated or require destructive disassembly.

>We'll run into problems once they "marry" all the electric parts

Already happened.

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

#388

Post by Solvitieg »

The elephant in the room is that the depreciation curve on EVs is still not comparable to gas vehicles

And it's all because of the consumable nature of batteries. Consumers don't buy used phones for the same reason

The ship of theseus doesn't really work for EVs (yet)

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

#389

Post by Underphil »

ibejoeb wrote: post #303
Tempest1981 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a lot of random complaints, from mobile apps to lane-keeping software. Not much seems specific to EVs, more just about new technologies. I guess you can rent a $20k Kia and avoid all the new tech.

If a brand popped up and offered a gasoline ICE with old toyota-level reliability and longevity, and without electronics (save for maybe bluetooth for some music) I'd pay a sizeable premium for it.

I'm with you on that. I don't need a screen full of soon-to-be outdated software on it. I carry one with me everywhere and it works just fine.

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

#390

Post by Underphil »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #385

Last time I rented a car from Hertz back in November I was surprised how many EVs they had on the lot. I would've thought EV rentals would be kind of niche, but they had several available. As an aside, I was also surprised that they had a special line/desk that was only for Uber/Lyft drivers and there were people in that line. I guess I would've thought that by the time you paid for the rental costs you wouldn't make…

It's possible that them being on the lot and not out with customers might also tell a story.
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