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

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

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title says "EVs" but really it's "Teslas" they're not selling their Polestars.

Had an awesome experience with a Hertz Polestar in Italy last summer. The trim was basic, but the suspension was superior to a Tesla, especially on Italian roads. Road noise was average at highway speeds with the cheaper trim.

my Polestar experience was great, except for the fact that for a car that has the dimensions of an SUV, the tiny windscreen and windows made it feel a bit claustrophobic, like being in a sports sedan

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

#572

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…

but don't they charge body repairs back to customers with juicy markups? i thought that was a core part of the car rental business model

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

#573
post #554
post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why h2 is the answer. h2 that is shown to work, regardless of all the hyperbole and reckless claims battery fans make.

Storage of H2 is a challenge in space and weight constrained devices such as cars. Plus, any well to wheels analysis shows H2 coming up behind the alternatives in efficiency. There aren't claims, these are physical constraints. For heavy vehicles such as trucks and busses (and trains) there might be a market, provided the H2 is an otherwise unused byproduct of some process and needn't be produced, but for the majorit…

Yet there are 3 separate car manufacturers, with h2 passenger vehicles, all with 500km+ range, all being sold for 1/2 a decade. Seems like it isn't a physical constraint?

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

#574
post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, these cars charge at maximum 240kW when the voltage is sufficient. But on a Tesla charger without sufficient voltage they charge at 100kW. Therefore the experience is significantly worse.

This is only true for somewhat old and obsolete Tesla superchargers, like V1 and V2. Since the introduction of Supercharger V3 they're all 400-1000V, so any car, with any internal voltage can charge at their rated speeds.

I believe you've mixed up the versions. That's only true for Supercharger V4, not V3. V3 did not support high voltages. V1 and V2 did not speak the CCS protocol so they were even more obsolete.

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

#575
post #467

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

My experience renting a model 3 from hertz was both positive and negative. At first, it was hard since I've never owned a model 3. Even if you are a model 3 owner, you are probably used to using your phone as the key. They give you a keycard. anyway, I didn't know how to lock the doors. finally I figured out the lock symbol on the central display and locked the doors. But when I got out, they were unlocked again. The…

There's a little pictograph on the keycard that shows how to lock & unlock the car from the outside, by pressing the card on the b-pillar.

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

#576
post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why h2 is the answer. h2 that is shown to work, regardless of all the hyperbole and reckless claims battery fans make.

That is one of the least efficient solutions possible - making hydrogen gas from water is at best 50% efficiency, and then you get to burn that hydrogen in a thermal engine with 30% efficiency.

Fuel cells have much better efficiency no?

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

#577

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

I never rented an EV but everyone I encountered with an EV rental had received it unexpectedly from Hertz and was struggling to charge it. It you want to give people a poor opinion of EVs, dump them in a rental EV and tell them it needs to be returned with 80% charge and don't offer any support on how to do that.

Oh that sucks. I recently rented a Model 3 from Sixt in Australia, and they said bring it back with any level of charge you want, which was great - I only had it for 3 days, and the initial charge was enough for that.

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

#578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... trying to find chargers with the right plug, ones that aren't broken, ones that were available, downloading various apps, etc. Then when I did find a charger I sat in the parking lot waiting for it to juice up. These considerations are why I think we'll eventually move to battery swapping, when the market is mature enough to have standards for batteries. When there are as many battery swapping stations as there…

I wonder if it would be easier to switch to say a part swappable battery, rather than try and make the whole thing swappable. Something smaller, but with a reasonable range, say 50 miles, might allow for a smaller ejection port on the car and possibly even light enough to handle by a person.

NIO (Chinese brand) has solid state swappable batteries and a battery swapping station in a shipping container.

You still need standardisation between all manufactureres for it to work.

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

#579
post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market is mature enough to have standards for charging, but is nowhere near being mature for battery swaps. The charging problem will be solved long before battery swaps get close to being a thing, especially with the recent convergence on NACS.

I'd call the charging market far from nature. Installing random apps, practically per charging point? Or requiring a second wallet for all the 'network' cards? Wake me up when I need nothing more than the payment card I already carry.

It only works with Teslas, forget the other ones. That's part of why the others have failed to deliver a useful EV: only Tesla has a reliable charging network. The others are reliant on half assed solutions made by third parties.

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

#580
post #579
post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd call the charging market far from nature. Installing random apps, practically per charging point? Or requiring a second wallet for all the 'network' cards? Wake me up when I need nothing more than the payment card I already carry.

It only works with Teslas, forget the other ones. That's part of why the others have failed to deliver a useful EV: only Tesla has a reliable charging network. The others are reliant on half assed solutions made by third parties.

Im in Europe, so that doesnt matter.

And even if they had then here top, they'd be useless to me, because Teslas are too large for me.

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