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Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

thecooldown.com

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Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#41

Post by dsfyu404ed »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #26
CydeWeys wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's widely known that maintenance costs way less on EVs than on gas-powered cars. There are plenty of data points everywhere to confirm this. EVs are much simpler with way fewer moving parts and fluids to worry about.

> moving parts and fluids That's where most of the problems come from. A lot of mechanics are probably not ready to deal with the issues EVs face, though.

Most of the problems in any moving vehicle come from stuff close to the ground, tires, suspension, steering. This is true for everything from battery powered forklifts to semi trucks.

Leaks start showing up in old age and the involved parts don't typically wear out unless you ignore leaks and habitually run some subsystem low on its requisite fluid or run it dry. There are some exceptions for piss poor engineering but generally the prior sentence holds.

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#42

Post by endisneigh »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #23
Majestic121 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While those numbers are extremely encouraging, the fact that this is on a new fleet is to be kept in mind. What we know now is that they 50-60% cheaper to maintain during the first couple of years. Let's hope that they are also 50-60% cheaper to maintain over their whole lifetime, but this might not be as assured as one might think due to batteries which are a huge cost.

The best part about exponential curves: By the time the battery needs to be replaced batteries will be 90% cheaper.

there's no way that will be true, lol

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#43

Post by topkai22 »

EVs have less maintenance costs than ICEs in general, but they have particularly less maintenance requirements during the for the lifespan rental companies keep their cars, often less then 30k miles. During that time you are really just looking at oil changes, fluids, and filters, which EVs don’t have or have less of.

Later in a car’s lifecycle you’ll start seeing things like tires, brakes (better with regenerative!), and trim start needing replacement, along with the battery. My older ICE’s most expensive maintenance issues in the last 2 years were the window regulators all failed- that has nothing to do with the power train.

Which is all to say EVs are cheaper to run overall, but they are suited to save even more money for rental companies than individual consumers.

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#44

Post by asciimov »

metadat wrote: post #4
cs702 wrote: post #2

According to the OP, Hertz has found that EVs are "between 50-60% cheaper to maintain than gasoline-powered cars." That's a huge difference. It means that the cost of using an ICE vehicle over time is 2x greater. If the figure is anywhere near accurate, ICE vehicles are toast.

Strange claim, because Hertz's fleets are comprised of new and almost brand new vehicles, which usually only require oil changes. Then they sell them off after accumulating 10,000-25,000 miles, before any real maintenance is required. 20,000 miles is what, 4-6 oil changes?

Rental Companies are notorious for not doing scheduled maintenance on cars.

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#45

Post by gruez »

CydeWeys wrote: post #21

Rental cars are prime candidates for EVs as they get driven a lot more than the average car. I don't own a car, but whenever I rent one I'm putting a lot more miles on it per day than any car I ever owned in the past. I only rent cars when I know I'll be doing a lot of driving, so it makes sense (otherwise I'd just take a few taxis/Ubers).

The most typical rental car use case I can think of is you traveling to a random city and needing transportation, either for a business trip or on vacation. In either case, I'm driving in an unfamiliar city, to a bunch of random places. The last thing I want in that scenario is having to worry about where I can charge my car. Finding parking is already enough hassle enough.

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#46

Post by agumonkey »

CydeWeys wrote: post #16
almost_usual wrote: post #9

Not many details on what components failed or how maintenance is better. I don’t doubt the claims but this feels like greenwashing PR.

It's widely known that maintenance costs way less on EVs than on gas-powered cars. There are plenty of data points everywhere to confirm this. EVs are much simpler with way fewer moving parts and fluids to worry about.

That said, a lot of EV have transmission and more fluids due to the need to improve temperature control. Until someone solves the battery chemistry problem again.

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#47

Post by lostlogin »

metadat wrote: post #27
treeman79 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So same as a gas car minus oil changes.

I'm not going to put the entire ICE maintenance list here, but there are a lot more wear items. Brakes, belts, coolant, oil, transmission service, annual emissions inspections. Radiator or other leaks.. pretty annoying. The maintenance schedule is definitely more involved. Edit: lostlogin, sure.. that's a, uhm, certain strategy. No doubt, Japanese cars can usually take an impressive amount of abuse. And yeah, a harsh…

It can be, but our 2 corollas have had an oil change each in 10 years, one got a set of tyres and one needed brake pads and rotor skimming.

It’s a terrible way to treat cars, but they go fine.

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#48

Post by MontyCarloHall »

As others have pointed out, attributing the higher profits to lower EV maintenance costs makes no sense, since rental cars are purchased new and sold after 10-20k miles, which is long before any major ICE-related repairs need to be performed. The only ICE-specific maintenance in the first 10-20k miles is 2-3 oil changes, which seems negligible.

I did notice that Hertz charges a flat $35 fee if you return an EV with less than 70% charge, with an additional $25 fee if the battery is below 10% [0]. I wonder if this is a big contributor to the profit margin: people rushing to return an EV rental car may not have time to recharge it to avoid the surcharge, whereas people returning ICE cars have time to refuel them. Also, the surcharge for returning an ICE car without a full tank is much lower; usually around $0.50 per missing gallon.

[0] https://www.hertz.com/blog/electric-vehicles/tesla/model-3/f...

Re: Hertz increased its fleet of EV rental cars – then, profits exploded

#49

Post by alexfromapex »

jakewins wrote: post #28

I’m 100% in the EV train, but this article is weird. It says they ordered a ton of EVs, and that EVs have lower cost of maintenance, awesome - but it provides no evidence that EV maintenance costs actually contributed to the improvements here? The statements they have from Hertz say “we made $$$$ from demand coming back to rent cars” and “we spent that $$$$ on buying EVs”. The quotes and facts in the article are not…

I think a large majority of these EV analyses suffer from short-term biases as well. It will be interesting to see if the cost of maintenance remains super low when these vehicles need battery replacements.
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