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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

#41

Post by pc86 »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #23
nytesky wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally made the same decision last night for a rental. I had no idea how to charge an electric car and did not want to have to deal with figuring it out on top of everything else. They charge you $25 if you return it not fully charged, which is bananas, because why couldn’t they just plug it in while they’re cleaning the car? It’s not like gas where they have to drive the car to a gas station.

You're likely going to spend more than $25 to put gasoline in your rental before returning it, and $25 is the approximate cost for a supercharger, so that charge seems very reasonable. You could have just taken the electric car and returned it empty.

The last time I rented a car (2 months ago?) if you returned it less than whatever you receive it at, you get charged for an entire tank of gas with the $3-4/gal markup. So receive it full and return it at 15/16ths and you're looking at a $80-100 bill easily on the larger vehicles.

It's likely similar where if you receive it at 100% and return it at 98% you're getting charged the full $25. It's just another revenue source for the company.

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

#43

Post by smileysteve »

cloudking wrote: post #18

I really enjoy Tesla vehicles, but I had a bad experience renting one from Budget. The cars require a Tesla account with a credit card attached in order to use Super Charging stations, which is managed by Budget and then they add the charging costs on to your bill at the end. Half way through the rental period the card they had attached expired, and I was locked out of using Super Chargers. I spent a long time on the…

Next you're going to tell us that rental companies don't change ICE oil on time.

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

#44

Post by brk »

jstummbillig wrote: post #5
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be an extension of the biggest problem with EVs: The edge cases. Even if the edge case is only 1% of your travel, do you want to buy a car that can't do it? It can be anything . You're living in Minnesota and your dad in Chicago had a heart attack. An ICE can get you there in about ~7 hours. An EV... you're going to need 1 supercharging station at a minimum, probably 2. Or, you just decide you want a ro…

Sounds like a transformation issue. In the beginning (I assume) before widespread filling station networks getting gas was an issue. Now it's not. That's not a quality of gas vs EV, it's a quality of ubiquity.

It is a transformation issue. However EV's are being promoted as a viable alternative to ICE vehicles generally speaking. The reality is that this is far from true.

For many people/families, an EV could be viable. For an even larger percentage of people or families with 2+ vehicles an EV could be very viable. Still, in most scenarios the ICE vehicle is the safe choice, with the pros and cons well understood.

IMO some of the EV pushback is from people (like me) who have nothing against EVs, but feel they are still a solid decade away from being a no-brainer choice, with much of the holdup being infrastructure related.

I'm all for saving the planet (note: I don't believe that EVs overall are as net environmentally positive as they are portrayed), but I'm not going to do it while stranded at a charging station.

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

#45

Post by pc86 »

jeffbee wrote: post #33
andrewla wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both -- the ubiquity would make things a lot easier, but you can fill up a car with gas in five minutes.

> you can fill up a car with gas in five minutes. Yeah, if you spend 4.5 minutes goofing off.

Or you end up getting that one pump/station that takes 50 seconds to spit out a single gallon.

I had to rent a 3-row SUV one time and refilling that thing was torturous, thankfully I only had to do it once.

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

#46

Post by masto »

oldpersonintx wrote: post #11

I've never driven an EV before. I don't want to learn about them when I am renting a vehicle...my relationship with rental cars is pure utility: get me from A to B By the same token I would never rent a diesel or a manual transmission vehicle...I don't want to learn about them via the rental experience

I haven't driven a gasoline car in over 5 years, so similarly I don't want to have to try to remember how to work one, and I'd rather just rent an EV for familiarity.

As more and more people have electric cars, it makes sense for the rental companies to transition to them, so that renting doesn't feel like you're being offered a horse and buggy.

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

#47

Post by steveBK123 »

nelsonic wrote: post #16

We recently went on vacation to Germany and rented a Polestar 2 from Hertz. The car was good but charging was infuriating. Had to download a new app for each charging spot and they didn't include a home-charging cable so we couldn't charge at family home we were visiting. Overall wouldn't recommend which is a huge shame. At home we drive a Tesla M3, charge at home from solar and supercharger network is flawless when…

EV owner 6 years here, rented an EV in Portugal and was a disaster.

Nearly stranded at a rest stop, spent 2 hours trying to charge, apps wouldn't accept payment, apps wouldn't activate Ionity charger, spent an hour on long distance cellphone call to Ionity call center where they manually activated a charge for me after great difficulty.

The other thing for people who think they can plan around it is that remember with typical rental agency you have no idea exactly which EV model they are going to give you at check in.

So could be the one with 220/240/280mi highway range. And then they might hand it to you with the battery at 80% full.

Your plans to safely get to your destination on 100% of the 280mi battery may be quickly spoiled by getting a a 240mi EV at 80% full and being -90mi short.

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

#48

Post by nocoiner »

I’ve owned several EVs (though not at this particular moment) and generally think they’re terrific. But I agree with several other posters - the typical scenario where I’m renting a car is exactly the one where EVs’ current shortcomings are most prominent.

Plus I can really only think of two types of vehicles that I’d ever want to rent - either an econobox to get me from point A to B to C in an area underserved by Uber/Lyft where I could not care less about what I’m temporarily driving, or a convertible. I guess maybe also an SUV - but in any event, those three categories are (as far as I am aware) just not yet well matched by any EVs on the market.

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

#49

Post by _ea1k »

helen___keller wrote: post #36

Over Christmas I flew to another city and rented a car for week. Hertz had great deals on EVs but not so great for ICE so I specifically avoided hertz and went with Avis instead. I like EVs and have a charger at home for my own car, but maybe due to that I also understand the difficulty of finding a reliable charging situation in a new place. On top of that I was visiting and parking at my parents house, and they don…

> On top of that I was visiting and parking at my parents house, and they don’t have a charger installed.

Yeah, and hertz doesn't tend to give you a mobile charger. I can't blame them, they are a separate cost and they tend to "get lost" with rentals, but it makes the EV option a lot less practical.

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

#50

Post by _ea1k »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #30

I’m surprised to hear that people have had some anxiety about charging when renting Teslas from Hertz. My experience was quite the opposite. Just use any supercharger and it bills to Hertz who bills to you. The hotel valet had EV charging and charged the battery up all the way every night. The only confusing part was figuring out what charge level I needed to return the car at (I think it was 75%). Otherwise it was g…

Yeah, it really varies. If you have a hotel with good ev charging, an EV can be a convenience. I've had the experience of renting a gas vehicle, and then realizing my hotel had EV charging and would have actually been more convenient. :)

But plenty of hotels still don't have that.

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