Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

691–700 of 834 posts

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

#691

Post by ljm »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #636
culturestate wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EVs are far easier and more convenient than gas cars. EVs certainly have some advantages, but for most of the world's population "convenience" isn't one of them. If you live in a house with a garage where you can install a charger and you use your car mostly as a runabout, it's great. The majority of the western world lives in cities with street parking and fewer chargers than vehicles, though, and in that situatio…

If by "majority" you mean, a small minority, then you're spot on! All you have to do is look at the census. 2/3rds of households have a garage or carport. If you add to this the number of people with private parking, that's like 80+% of people who can have chargers subsidized by the state. It's always important to look at numbers before you get trapped in your bubble.

> It's always important to look at numbers before you get trapped in your bubble.

The irony. I didn't realise that the UK (and in fact a large portion of Europe) wasn't part of the western world.

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

#692

Post by ghaff »

bluGill wrote: post #662
fsckboy wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

today, i consider email to be a failure, Imagine saying that in 1995. I rarely get them or have a need to send them which amplifies the spam ratio. It annoys me to get and send pdfs in text messages, but that seems to be how the world works now.

In 1995 email was very common, but it was always a propriatory system that only could be used in your office. Very little was connected to an outside network.

We had an email system starting before I joined in the mid-80s (a product we made called CEO) but it was purely internal until well into the 90s. I'm not sure exactly when most people had some form of interoperable email but it was well into the dot-com era.

I still use email pretty frequently even if communications are at least somewhat fragmented across SMS, Facebook, Slack, etc.

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

#693

Post by josefresco »

ibejoeb wrote: post #303
Tempest1981 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a lot of random complaints, from mobile apps to lane-keeping software. Not much seems specific to EVs, more just about new technologies. I guess you can rent a $20k Kia and avoid all the new tech.

If a brand popped up and offered a gasoline ICE with old toyota-level reliability and longevity, and without electronics (save for maybe bluetooth for some music) I'd pay a sizeable premium for it.

> brand popped up and offered a gasoline ICE with old toyota-level reliability and longevity, and without electronics

Bought that car last year for about 20K - Kia Rio 5 door. Wonderful little car.

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

#694

Post by andoma »

nsteel wrote: post #652
brnt wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those in Europese arent what they are in the US, they're just, of ten individuap, stations with the common plug, just like the other ones.

What are they like the in the US? I've searched and on the face of it they look just like the ones I used in the UK with two types of connector (like in the picture at https://thedriven.io/2022/02/27/where-can-you-charge-a-tesla... )

Correct. I've lived both in US (Cali) and EU (Sweden) with a Tesla. And apart from that's is a different plug there's virtually no difference at all. 250kW DC charging. No problems.

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

#695

Post by forgotusername6 »

_heimdall wrote: post #678
forgotusername6 wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Batteries are still surprisingly heavy. I'm sure someone here has a more accurate lb/kWh figure, but my first gen Chevy volt can do about 35 miles on a charge and the batteries weigh several hundred pounds.

Ok, so we are still looking at some kind of power assisted mechanism if not completely automatic.

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

#696

Post by ghaff »

mbreese wrote: post #460
dcchambers wrote: post #453

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…

> or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infrastructure. When I’m traveling for work and need a car, it’s usually for smaller quick trips where I wouldn’t even need to refill a tank of gas. For these types of trips, a single charge on an EV makes sense. But otherwise, I agree with you. EV rental doesn’t make much sense to me for long trips or vacation travel where you’ll be driving a lot in a p…

And honestly, for the former type of trip, given Uber/Lyft, I'm less inclined to rent a car than I used to be--especially if work is paying--unless I'm doing short side trip(s) that aren't as amenable to just grabbing a ride from an app.

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

#697

Post by forgotusername6 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #598
forgotusername6 wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or hook up a battery in a trailer for the occasional long journey.

This is a good idea. Why carry round all that weight 100% of the time when you can only take it when you need it.

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

#698

Post by andoma »

b112 wrote: post #520
chrisbolt wrote: post #513

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.

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

One of the biggest upsides of an EV is that you charge at home. Always start in the morning fully charged. No "Dang, need to go to the station". H2 is definitely not a step in that direction so for me it's DOA.

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

#699

Post by yyyfb »

dcchambers wrote: post #453

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…

The way you rent cars isn't necessarily the way that other rental car customers rent cars. If you're going on a road trip you don't want an EV. But I rent cars about 12x a year for trips of just a few days with very little mileage, just so I don't have to depend on taxis, and EVs are a great choice for me. I don't usually drive more than 50 miles on those trips, and strongly prefer EVs because I find them to provide better driving comfort (more responsive acceleration, better handling) than most ICE cars.

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

#700

Post by twobitshifter »

yyyfb wrote: post #685

I rented a Tesla on a recent trip lasting a few days, and I feel there are other reasons for which is a bad rental car than charging. I've rented a lot of cars, but when I got this one I spent ten minutes completely dumbfounded trying to get it going. They gave me a key card but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Swipe it, I guess, but where? I tried the door, but the pillar? Would've never guessed until looki…

I couldn’t agree more. Tesla has a major problem of not following the standard interaction design of cars. If you have to Google how to do something on your rental car, the designers have failed.

Even opening the back door while inside is unorthodox. There’s not a handle to pull, instead it’s a push button that looks like it’s for the window?

Post reply on HN