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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

#411

Post by Scoundreller »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #402
Scoundreller wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's (yet) another reason why I don't buy the insurance that covers incidents of my own fault for my beater. A crushed bumper will deem it salvage and the insurer will take it away but I could still drive it (and from a relative's experience, at much lower cost than the insurer would pay). But on a newer vehicle, it takes a lot of damage to get branded salvage. Also makes sense for Hertz to do it in-house as they'l…

> That's (yet) another reason why I don't buy the insurance that covers incidents of my own fault for my beater. Insurance companies still make you pay for everyone else's coverage. ref: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/05/auto-insu...

Less so when you opt out of portions of it and self-insure. Not recommending anyone opt out of personal liability when that's an option.

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

#412

Post by smsm42 »

atkailash wrote: post #264
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.

Efficiency is mostly irrelevant - unless you're going into the wilderness, you have a gas station within minutes of driving, and unless you are extremely careless, the chance you may end up in a place where you can't drive to a gas station is pretty much non-existent. Gas station locations are available on any phone that has internet connection, which again unless you are into extreme roughing it, is everywhere. I don't remember any time where I needed ever to plan around filling up, unless a) I am driving very long distance for hours (even then it's pretty easy) or b) I need to fill it up before returning the rental (usually there's a gas station right next to the entrance, with a properly inflated price to punish the fools that couldn't plan it in advance, but sometimes you may need to make a detour to get to it). With EV, it looks like much more of a chore.

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

#413

Post by rootusrootus »

throwaway15858 wrote: post #378
rootusrootus wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where does this myth come from? Politics.

The problem is the degradation is fastest when it's brand new.

Sure, but when the overall degradation is pretty minimal, this doesn't matter terribly much. I'm at 96.5% rated capacity after 12K miles. That's pretty typical. I should be down near 90-93% capacity at 100K miles. I probably won't keep this car long enough to get down to 80%. At that point I -might- consider replacing the battery, but given how old the car will be, it's not too likely. The only way the battery ever gets replaced in this car is if it fails altogether.

Right now if I had to pay that out of pocket it would be more than a new engine, but not by a huge amount. By the time I don't have a battery warranty, the cost will most likely be in line with a used engine for a similar ICE car.

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

#414

Post by tempestn »

mulmen wrote: post #360
phinnaeus wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I rented a Tesla from Hertz recently. The throttle response was incredible. Everything else about the car was truly awful. Opaque touch UI. Fiddly steering wheel buttons with unclear functionality. Dangerously unpredictable self-driving. Insistent seat memory that constantly tried to crush me on entry. Had to install an app to unlock the car. Really a terrible vehicle . A friend of mine rented a Kia Nero EV and it wa…

I do tend to agree that a lot of peculiarities of Teslas are unnecessary and/or bad, but for what it's worth most of the ones you listed are less of an issue for a vehicle that you own. Unlocking with the phone is convenient, you tie seat memory to the user, and you learn the button functions. (Some aspects are still definitely stupid, like the intermittent wiper function, the auto high beams, and autopilot on anything but clearly marked highways. And of course the lack of stalks on the new ones.)

Anyway, they're a terrible choice for a rental fleet. You want rental vehicles to behave as much as possible like the average vehicle, so there's a minimal learning curve. Next to manual transmission vehicles in North America, Teslas have to be about the worst choice for that.

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

#416

Post by fomine3 »

pmontra wrote: post #346
hibikir wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

> They are also probably unaccustomed to the car's behavior when you lift the gas pedal completely It's been at least 4 years since I drove an EV so I don't remember what they do. I expect the car to slow down and eventually come to a halt. I remember that I wasn't surprised by anything in particular so it's probably what it did. What do Teslas do?

There are many EV noobs who haven't driven yet, and their first try might be a rent car.

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

#417

Post by sebmellen »

Funny, I just tried to rent a Model 3 from Hertz today, and I was “upgraded” to a Corolla (which they made me pay $33 extra for), even though I was guaranteed a Tesla online.

Why? Because I’m not yet 25.

Of course, the website let me book it even after I entered my age. Really horrible user experience and customer service.

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

#418

Post by phinnaeus »

eps wrote: post #372
phinnaeus wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Give BMW i4 a drive. It's excellent.

I absolutely will, thanks for the recommendation!

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

#419

Post by gnicholas »

scottyah wrote: post #376
Aspos wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went out of my way to charge the vehicle before returning, returned it with 98% it but was still charged extra. Complaints to their call centre got me nowhere and I just resolved not use Hertz ever again. The only winner here is Polestar. That will be the next car I'll buy.

It's very odd that you start with a policy complaint against Hertz that is factually false^1 (maybe the agent didn't know?) then the conclusion is to buy a Polestar. 1. We ask you to return the EV with at least the same level of charge or 75% (whichever is lower). via https://images.hertz.com/pdfs/ENGB_EV_RENTAL_TERMS.pdf

Why would you allege that what @aspos says is factually false? Perhaps this happened before their policy was updated, or perhaps the person working there didn't know (or was a jerk).

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

#420

Post by lsllc »

nox101 wrote: post #408
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…

> I was told I need to return the car charged or I would be billed for "filling it up". I was confused why they couldn't charge at the airport and also explained that if I charge near my hotel it will likely not be 100% when I get to the airport. They couldn't say if that was ok. This is the same with gas cars. It's very frustrating because they're directly being dicks to their customers. You have 3 options 1. Bring…

I can see it with gas cars because they then have to have someone drive it to the nearest gas station and fill it up, which even for an airport with an on-site gas station probably would be at least 20 mins, possibly more.

But with an electric car, they just have to park it (which they have to do anyway) and plug it in (although I suppose if you left it near zero, it could mean they can't re-rent the car for some amount of time).

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