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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

#51

Post by PaulWaldman »

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.

There likely is greenwashing. The percentage of their fleet consisting of EVs is likely small. Most modern ICE vehicles only need service every 10K miles on their ICE components. This may amount to $1000 for the time rental companies are operating a particular vehicle, a fraction of the overall revenue.

Alternatively, how are rental companies charging returned EVs? The time spent sitting at a charger should be considered as lost revenue when an EV comes back empty.

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

#52

Post by RHSeeger »

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.

I'd be interested in seeing how this applies to consumers/owners. From what I've seen, the items that tend to cost more in maintenance for EVs are things like the battery; ones that last a long-ish time but are extremely expensive to fix/replace when they go. Given that rental companies (and people that lease) likely won't have the cars long enough to reach that point, the overall maintenance cost is lower for them. Does this hold true when you start to consider people that own/use the cars for 10+ years?

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

#53

Post by linuxftw »

gruez wrote: post #32

Is this really due to Hertz's electrification efforts, or just a broader trend (ie. lockdowns ending leading to more car rental use)? If we look at their competitor, we see that their profits rose even more (in percentage terms)[1]. Sure, being "50-60% cheaper to maintain" is nothing to sneeze at, but without analysis into how much that weighs against other factors (eg. depreciation, because electric cars are more ex…

I'm also thinking about depreciation. I suspect most people that want an electric car are going to buy new, especially considering the tax credits. Are they going to be able to successfully offload 3-year old, high-mileage rental electric cars?

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

#54

Post by tdub311 »

danuker wrote: post #24
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.

I think it remains to be seen, as batteries wear out. That could take years.

How long do rental places keep cars?

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

#55

Post by jqpabc123 »

agumonkey wrote: post #46
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.

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.

That said, a lot of EV have transmission and more fluids due to the need to improve temperature control.

Most EV's don't even have a transmission. And any battery cooling fluids are often sealed up inside the battery pack.

Some EVs have air cooled battery packs, Nissan Leaf for example.

If anything, you must be thinking about hybrids.

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

#56

Post by greatpatton »

alexfromapex wrote: post #49
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.

We already know the battery lifetime as many many electrical vehicles have reached hundreds of thousand of km... Anyway I don't think that Hertz really care as they are not going to keep the cars for that long.

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

#57

Post by toomuchtodo »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #48

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 l…

Wow! That’s obscene considering they have chargers at the lot to recharge the vehicles and the power costs them almost nothing.

The perk should be able to return it on empty, as they can plug them right in at arrival. If Hertz wants to be able to turn the vehicles faster, they can install fast DC chargers at their facilities.

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

#58

Post by jakewins »

alexfromapex wrote: post #49
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.

Yeah good point.

I always imagined it as similar to transmission replacement - ie. If they can make the battery pack last as long as a median transmission, then it’ll be after the overall vehicles useful life before it comes time to replace.

We will see. We just swapped the battery on ours, price if it hadn’t been done on warranty was $50K, on a car we paid $35K for.. but then again, cost to us was zero.

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

#59

Post by lm28469 »

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.

> ICE vehicles are toast

Let's wait, my dad traded his 20 years old car for a new model a few years ago, he paid 8k euros for a brand new ICE car, he does under 10k km per year now. The cheapest EV I can find is 22k euros here, and it's a piece of shit that barely does highway speed, which he could not afford anyways.

Companies will make public charger more and more expensive until it reaches the price of filling a gas car, it's just matter of time, mechanics will do the same. In the meantime it's all tricks and snares, enjoy it while it lasts

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

#60

Post by RHSeeger »

topkai22 wrote: post #43

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!)…

> My older ICE’s most expensive maintenance issues in the last 2 years were the window regulators all failed

I had a car a number of years back where the window controls failed. Fixing it would have been so expensive (more than I could afford at the time) that I drove the entire NY winter with some plastic material taped over the top half of the window (as far up as it was when it failed).

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