You have to bring them back with a full battery? Who has time for that?

You bring it back empty, pay the fee, and now Hertz has to deal with it. I'm sure they don’t have the charging capabilities to turn a fleet of EVs around effeciently.

I had an option to get an EV rental. Asked if I need to charge before bringing back, yeah within 5%. Hard pass. I rather put $5 in the gas tank of a Corolla than try to find a charger and then sit there when I'm flying out same day.

I've never been told I have to bring it back charged. That was the only advantage. They asked that it have at least a 10% charge.

So yeah, you can essentially bring it back almost empty no problem. At least with Hertz. The Hertz at Philadelphia Airport had a whole line of chargers in their lot.

I saw this coming a year ago.

We went to FFL for a long weekend to see Billy Joel. Staying at the Hard Rock.

The CHEAPEST car available to rent was a Tesla Model 3 Long Range. OK, I'll bite...

The hotel had free charging. It took some time to get used to everything, but I figured it out, and we probably put 100 miles on it.

Then, last month, the same thing happened when we went to PHX for a long weekend. The CHEAPEST car available was a regular Tesla Model 3. I booked and paid for it in advance, but about 10 days before the trip, I checked the rates. They had dropped significantly. I called, got the lower rate, and checked to ensure the Model 3 was still the lowest-priced option. It was or it was within $10 for the weekend.

What sucked was they had the Tesla locked in CHILL mode. I called to get it unlocked, and they did nothing at all. When I returned the car, I told the attendant it was locked in Chill mode, and he said they were not supposed to do that.

I'm not at all surprised Hertz is dropping them. They were not in demand, as reflected in the per day rental rate.

quote:

You have to bring them back with a full battery? Who has time for that?

My BIL was told that he had to when he got stuck with one on a business trip. He ended up spending 2 hours sitting in the car at a charging station at some random gas station instead of being at his hotel sleeping after putting in a 12 hour day of work.

Another buddy got stuck with one on a family vacation trip. He'd reserved a full-size SUV, but when he got to the counter at the airport they didn't have one and he was told all they had left were Teslas. It wasn't fully charged when he picked it up, and within a day it was getting critical. He dropped his wife and kids off to go shopping and spent almost 2 hours driving around with the app trying to find a working charging station. Right before it died he came upon another office location for the same rental company. He parked the almost dead EV out front, went inside, and managed to convince them to trade it for the full-size, gas-powered SUV he'd originally requested. He said he wasn't sure what they did about the basically dead EV in the parking lot after he left, but was glad it was no longer his problem!

Oh, another EVs suck story.

Government needs to stop mandating electric vehicles.

Having them as rental cars is stupid.

The general knowledge of electric and the public charging infrastructure is nowhere near what is needed.

Hertz was not thinking when they bought all these.


I love my EV, but I’m retired and charge off my home solar panels.

Fall 2022, I had an electric SUV as a rental car and it showed me the folly of electric vehicles as rentals:

The rental car place was out of cars despite dozens of customers having reservations. The manager was going through the line asking customers how far they were driving, and if the answer was a short distance they offered no waiting for an electric SUV. 5 people rejected it ahead of me, and naively I said yes as it couldn't be that bad 60 km from one of the big 8 cities in Canada. In hindsight, dumb decision.

The guy at checkout tried to sell me the fuel purchase option. It was a pure electric vehicle (i.e. not a hybrid) so a less aware consumer would've given them gasoline money.

I had to watch YouTube to be able to fuel it. The 120V charger was 58 hours to full charge so I was forced to look for charging stations with 230/240 Volt. There are two kinds of 230/240 volt charging - the kind like you'd install in your garage is 8 or 9 hours for full charge, and some of the commercial fast charge ones are still ~2 hours.

There was no charging stations at the hotel or the office. Only one restaurant between the hotel and office had a charging station (the 8 or 9 hour version). It was in Canada and the charging station required an app to use it so I had to use international data to download the app. PITA.

I don't get the business model for the rental car company. If I return a gasoline car they fill it up, run it through the automatic car wash, vacuum quickly, and have back out for rental in under 30 minutes. When I returned the electric SUV it was on 30% life remaining so 1.5 hours to 6 hours depending on which charger they had. That's a lot of downtime between rentals.

At many airports, the rental cars are in a multistory parking garage and I'd wager a large amount of money they don't have the electricity necessary for 25%, 50%, or 75% of the fleet to be electric. Can it be fixed? Yes, but it takes a lot of money further making the business case worse.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
Oh, another EVs suck story.

No, it's a story about bad decisions to incorporated government pushed products into mainstream consumer use through rental companies without thinking though the consequences of putting a vehicle in the fleet that cannot meet the expectations of those particular consumer needs.

EV's just happen to be the bad decision when putting them into rental fleets for a myriad of reasons.

They suck for Hertz. That’s literally the story here.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
They suck for Hertz. That’s literally the story here.

Sounds like it.

I'll start watching Hertz car sales to see about picking up one below market.

I'd really like a Polestar, but I'd settle for a Y Long Range

Funny you should mention it, but I did glance at what they currently have for sale. No Polestars.

They had a variety of Tesla Model 3s and Ys. I have no idea what a good price would be, but I'm guessing a 2022 Model 3 long range with 95,000 miles for $30,000 was not a good deal. They had quite a few with between 45,000 and 60,000 miles for about the same price. The standard range seemed to be around $25,000. They Model Ys seemed to be around $39,000. I could be wrong, but I thought the Model Y long range was about $50,000 new before the $7,500 federal tax credit.

They had some nice deals on Mustang GT Premium Convertibles, until I looked at the location. Hawaii.

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
They suck for Hertz. That’s literally the story here.

Sounds like it.

I'll start watching Hertz car sales to see about picking up one below market.

I'd really like a Polestar, but I'd settle for a Y Long Range

Just looked at Hertz EV sales and the Tesla’s are priced around $31K or so.

Not a super cheap below market price.

If you wouldn’t rent one why would you buy one? You just inherited all of the problems in addition to having to set aside money for new batteries.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
If you wouldn’t rent one why would you buy one? You just inherited all of the problems in addition to having to set aside money for new batteries.

I have rented Hertz Teslas a couple of times already...Model Y Long Range...mostly to see if access worked for me with my hip replacement.

Both times were for a weekend, both down in SoCal/Orange County. It drove really well...except for the time I kicked the tail out with too much throttle in a curve...never needed recharging during the weekend, and it was the least expensive option for that time frame. Was looking to rent another for a weeklong stay in CO later this year...even had a Super Charger at the hotel I booked...but all the model Ys were taken.

I wasn't planning on keeping it long enough to go through the battery. I think of the Tesla as more of a utility car as opposed to a touring car...great for daily commutes and short (200 miles) out of town trips. My house is already wired with a circuit for charging an EV

I do have my eye on the new smaller SUV Lucid should be introducing in a couple of years. I'd own a Lucid Air, but my hip won't let me get in and out easily...I'm just really impressed by their build quality, UI and range (~ 480 miles)

Dumb decision for a rental. If someone is renting they are probably on vacation or at a work event and don’t want to spend time sitting in an unfamiliar area charging their car.

Not a single board member or senior executive had the brains or guts to say, "who the hell would want to rent an electric vehicle if they don't have a charger installed in their home?!?!" ...that certainly isn't 25% of the population. Furthermore, most EV owners I know have several vehicles, so they likely wouldn't need to rent one if their's is in the shop.

I know that is not their reasoning, but I mean come on. I'm sure some people would rent one ONCE just to see what "all the rage" is about. But I bet your average renter doesn't want to continuously have to deal with all the added logistics of having to find working chargers, and the extra time to charge their rental... geez, nobody really thought of that before dropping hundreds of millions on that decision? Wow. Looks like this DEI hiring and promoting is really paying off.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
If you wouldn’t rent one why would you buy one? You just inherited all of the problems in addition to having to set aside money for new batteries.

I wouldn’t rent one because if I’m renting a car it’s because I’m driving long distances, on vacation or somewhere for business. All of those scenarios have me using up my valuable time when I don’t want to. If I bought one for personal use I could charge at home while I’m sleeping.


From the article Hertz is not dropping them at all they are pulling back on the reigns because of repair costs associated with front end crashes.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
From the article Hertz is not dropping them at all they are pulling back on the reigns because of repair costs associated with front end crashes.

And because of low demand.

Electric rental cars will now make up ~7% of their fleet.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
If you wouldn’t rent one why would you buy one? You just inherited all of the problems in addition to having to set aside money for new batteries.

I wouldn’t rent one because if I’m renting a car it’s because I’m driving long distances, on vacation or somewhere for business. All of those scenarios have me using up my valuable time when I don’t want to. If I bought one for personal use I could charge at home while I’m sleeping.


From the article Hertz is not dropping them at all they are pulling back on the reigns because of repair costs associated with front end crashes.

Good new, not so good news:

The Model 3s are being priced in the $20k range, which with tax breaks makes them available for around $16k...but you need to keep an eye on how many miles they have on them. The Model y hasn't been in service as long, has fewer miles (~30k-40k), but is price in the $30K range. That is pretty close to what you'd currently pay for a new one...due to the recent discounts and available tax breaks

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
Oh, another EVs suck story.

Government needs to stop mandating electric vehicles.

Having them as rental cars is stupid.

The general knowledge of electric and the public charging infrastructure is nowhere near what is needed.

Hertz was not thinking when they bought all these.


I love my EV, but I’m retired and charge off my home solar panels.

Wait! You’ve got a Mustang EV?!?