Renting an electric vehicle

[brewski]

A bit off topic...
I decided to rent a Model Y last week on a trip.
I thought I might avoid having to fill up before bringing it back (wrong)
and figured I wouldn't drive far enough to have to charge (wrong).
We also own an S, so I am familiar with the world of Tesla.

Let's just say I won't rent an electric vehicle again.
If I didn't have EV familiarity I would NEVER rent an electric car.
The number of times I had to pull over to find something in the menu.

You must return with at least 70% charge.
$30 more and you can return it at whatever charge level.
70% is all it had when I picked it up.

They use the card vs key.

My hotel did not have a charger.
Going to charge up in normal life is fine.
When on a trip, sitting at the charger is not how I want to be spending my time.

While the Y is a sporty car to drive, the quality difference between a Y & S is very apparent.
Yet, there must be something about Teslas and that rear seat passenger side rattle.

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[Maquis]

On a recent trip, I could have rented a Bolt for a lower rate than a standard car. I didn’t do it for the same reason - no convenient way to charge it up before returning.
They also had Teslas available, but the daily rate was higher than standard.

 

[ChrisC]

I only rent EVs when I have the option. I used Turo on a recent trip to rent a Model Y and have booked the Model 3 Teslas on Hertz when they were available. The experience has been great and since I have driven an EV since 2014 I am use to the challenge. I make sure that I know where the chargers are in the area and plug in when I am shopping or going to a restaurant. I like the experience of driving different EVs than what I own and not going to a gas station so it is worth it to me

 

[astricklin]

The issues I had renting a Tesla from Hertz in Feb had everything to do with Hertz and nothing to do with the vehicle itself. You just have to turn it in with a higher charge than you took it at, which in my case was 20%. Also I never got charged for the supercharging that I did so I was happy about that.

 

[astricklin]

I want to try again soon with a ccs vehicle instead of a Tesla, although my lightning may show up before I manage to do that.

 

[Monkey]

I think it depends where you rent from and where you're going to be driving it. I've rented a Tesla three times now, all in California.

First was a Model S a few years ago. Rented via Turo, the guy picked me up at the airport took me to his office building and got me set up with the car. Overall great experience, even though it took more time getting to the car and getting on my way than if I had just done a rental at the airport. He had unlimited charging on his S so no fees to charge, I guess he just figured a rental rate that worked for him. Tesla charger was just down the street from my hotel, didn't drive a ton of distance and just charged once in the days I had it.

Second was another rental through Turo. A model 3 and absolutely miserable experience. Car was dirty and poorly kept. Needed new tires. Any Tesla charging sessions that get billed to the car during the rental are passed on to me. The person was just hard to work with, rude, showed up late to get me, as if they forgot and I had to track them down, almost just rented a different car and should have. Wanted to cut my rental short because they needed the car for something else. Yeah... That and one other bad Turo experience (non-EV) and I'll never do Turo again as there's no accountability. It's like Uber and the like, but worse.

Last time was a Model Y through Hertz. Really no different than renting an ICE. They're supposed to give it to you full (or fully charged) but it was 75%. They want it returned 70% or better charged. If I use Tesla chargers, it just gets passed through to me, same as toll road charges and such. This was late last year. I was also told they were starting to offer CCS adapters with their Tesla rentals, but didn't have any available for mine. I didn't need it, but looks like Hertz is on top of the EV rental thing.

I think the only reason I don't rent EVs more is because I'm usually going places where I don't want the extra hassle of finding chargers. That or there are none to rent, I usually still look. I almost rented a Tesla when I was in Hawaii back in march. I spent most of my time in and around Honolulu and there's quite a few Teslas there these days. I would've done it, but the rental rates were stupid expensive. They were bad enough for ICE I ended up renting. And I really could've just used Uber a few times and the local shuttles and probably saved myself $200...

 

[ivan256]

I was the first renter of a brand new Bolt recently.

It worked out for me, because it was a one-way rental to my house, and I was able to charge it up when I got home. Then I returned it to the local Avis with a full charge - lucky I did (for them) because that Avis location had no charging capability.

It was a "free upgrade," but my impression was that they were having a hard time getting takers for the Bolt. Who has time to wait around at chargers when you're travelling? Unless you're an "EV person" or explicitly planned ahead to include charging stops and times you just can't.

The only way EV rental can really be successful is if you don't have to recharge before returning. Having to return at >70% or with a higher charge than you left with are a complete non-starter for most people. Rental companies need to include a full charge in the price of the rental and not gouge customers for returning a vehicle with low charge. And they need to top the cars off before renting them out.

With a vehicle like the Bolt, it would be possible for a person who picked it up with a full charge to drive it all week on a trip without needing to charge ever.... as long as they can return it with low charge at the end. But if you might pick one up that's already low, and then you're wasting an hour at a level 3 charger somewhere, when you have somewhere to be? Forget it.

It was nice to get to drive the Bolt. If they put some nice seats in that car, it would be a really fantastic vehicle. I hope they end up cheap on the secondary market. And I wish Ford would take some lessons from GM's digital gauge cluster designers.

 

[mr.Magoo]

Had a Model 3 as a rental through Hertz a couple of times, the J1772 >> Tesla adapter have been hit and miss if it was included (or lost / "eternally borrowed" by previous renters) which makes charging at Hotels an even bigger lottery.

On a recent trip they had a Polestar available which I might have tried had someone not just spotted it before I did.

Personally I'm OK with EV if I know I'm driving to reliable charging locations and/or staying within the range of the vehicle. But if rater not make charge stops a part of my vacation planning / research.

 

[astricklin]

When I rented a model 3, my charging stops were at stops for other things. It didn't really take up any extra time.

 

[ivan256]

When I rented a model 3, my charging stops were at stops for other things. It didn't really take up any extra time.

That seems awfully lucky.

I've been a daily EV driver since I picked up my Lightning on Halloween last year, and I have yet to successfully destination charge at a single place I would have been otherwise. I've even planned in advance to increase my odds, picked hotels based on charger availability only to find them in use or broken. I purchased a TeslaTap for this, and still haven't been able to use it. (I have had several opportunities where charging was available at one of my destinations, but I didn't need to charge)

100% of my charging so far has either been at my home, or at a place I stopped at primarily to charge.

It seems like the community of EV owners has a lot of people who are motivated to convince people that this is no big deal, or not an issue that EVs have. But being unrealistic about it does the technology a disservice. People are generally smarter than they get credit for, and know when something is BS, even if they can't specifically put their finger on why. "Charging isn't a big deal on trips, and doesn't really take up extra time" is so obviously not true that you're not going to win any converts to EVs by saying it.

The honest thing is that charging isn't a big deal for day to day driving if you have the ability to charge at home, but outside of that situation you will have to plan ahead and almost always budget some extra time.

If you're talking about a rental, the vehicle better be priced accordingly, because trip time is much more valuable than normal time. Business or pleasure.

 

[bosox8]

That seems awfully lucky.

I've been a daily EV driver since I picked up my Lightning on Halloween last year, and I have yet to successfully destination charge at a single place I would have been otherwise. I've even planned in advance to increase my odds, picked hotels based on charger availability only to find them in use or broken. I purchased a TeslaTap for this, and still haven't been able to use it. (I have had several opportunities where charging was available at one of my destinations, but I didn't need to charge)

100% of my charging so far has either been at my home, or at a place I stopped at primarily to charge.

It seems like the community of EV owners has a lot of people who are motivated to convince people that this is no big deal, or not an issue that EVs have. But being unrealistic about it does the technology a disservice. People are generally smarter than they get credit for, and know when something is BS, even if they can't specifically put their finger on why. "Charging isn't a big deal on trips, and doesn't really take up extra time" is so obviously not true that you're not going to win any converts to EVs by saying it.

The honest thing is that charging isn't a big deal for day to day driving if you have the ability to charge at home, but outside of that situation you will have to plan ahead and almost always budget some extra time.

If you're talking about a rental, the vehicle better be priced accordingly, because trip time is much more valuable than normal time. Business or pleasure.

So true!
- - - -
t seems like the community of EV owners has a lot of people who are motivated to convince people that this is no big deal, or not an issue that EVs have. But being unrealistic about it does the technology a disservice. People are generally smarter than they get credit for, and know when something is BS, even if they can't specifically put their finger on why. "Charging isn't a big deal on trips, and doesn't really take up extra time" is so obviously not true that you're not going to win any converts to EVs by saying it.
- - - -
Some folks here react to observations critical of EVs like you called their child ugly and then "try" to flip it around like you're a rube and you should know this is how you should have dealt with it. I'm seriously anxious about my trip to Millinocket, Maine this summer from Maryland going the western route (I-78 thru Allentown) up to Hartford and then up the Maine turnpike. I know I'm looking at two additional hours for charging assuming the chargers along the way are working and at least 125kw and there's no line in front of me.

 

[ivan256]

I'm seriously anxious about my trip to Millinocket, Maine this summer from Maryland going the western route (I-78 thru Allentown) up to Hartford and then up the Maine turnpike. I know I'm looking at two additional hours for charging assuming the chargers along the way are working and at least 125kw and there's no line in front of me.

Not to de-rail, but if it makes you feel any better the charging up this way is generally pretty solid and I've had no trouble with EA stops along I-95 from CT on up. Even if there's a wait it's never very long. I doubt you'll have any trouble getting there.

...

Once you're there though, it's a real charging desert. I'd want to be 1000% sure wherever your going has a plug for you when you arrive!

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