11 ms·

I say this having never driven a Tesla, but are they really suitable rental cars? My understanding is that Tesla vehicles differ quite a bit from regular ICE ve

by aqzman 5y ago

I say this having never driven a Tesla, but are they really suitable rental cars? My understanding is that Tesla vehicles differ quite a bit from regular ICE vehicles, to the point that there's a bit of a learning curve to operating the car. I'd be interested to hear from a Tesla owner on this. Maybe it's a non-issue.

1123581321 5y ago
Try a test drive sometime. The Tesla stores only need to give a minute of explanation. A rental employee would do the same thing. They are easy to understand.
xiphias2 5y ago
As a non-Tesla owner, I'd love to rent a Tesla on my vacations just to try it before deciding on buying one. I'd say it's much better for renting than buying, as I know how I would use it beforehand.
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  > As a non-Tesla owner, I'd love to rent a Tesla on my vacations just to try it before deciding on buying one. Me too. I actually looked into that a few months ago. In Boston Massachusetts, there is this place: https://www.teslarents.com/ https://www.teslarents.com/ But we were going to San Francisco not Boston, and there was nothing that I could google up. With the exception of Oslo, Norway; I've never seen so many Teslas as I did in the Bay area, but it seemed really hard to rent one for a few days. Maybe by the next time that I'm there a Tesla 3 will be standard at Hertz, but in 2021 you'll be lucky to get a Nissan. The competence and availability of even that, was low.
  - bkev 5y ago
    Try Turo. There tend to be quite a few Teslas there. https://turo.com/ https://turo.com/
    - SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
      I'm not sure that I "get" Turo. this is ... Airbnb for cars? In any case, I don't think it would have worked for us, we handed the car back days later, in a different city. Which is fine for Hertz, but probably not for a Turo "host"? It's likely that by the next time we're there, things will be different.
      - hunter2_ 5y ago
        Yes, like airbnb. The host delivers and retrieves the vehicle within whatever operating radius they want to offer, so two cities is very unlikely. However, I think there is some kind of variable delivery fee, so as long as you want to pay that and get the owner to agree to set a gigantic radius, it might work. https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991040-Choosing-delivery-for-your-trip https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991040-Choosin... says: > You’re not able to set one location for pickup and a different location for drop off when you book your trip. But once the trip is booked, you can request to change your delivery pickup or drop off location. Once the trip is in progress you can still request to change the drop off location. The new location must be one where the host already offers delivery, or it must be within their custom delivery radius.
      - FireBeyond 5y ago
        Turo is a huge market for laundering cash. In my area there are multiple Chrysler 300Cs that are "available" to rent for $600/day. Except they're not available. They're actively being rented for weeks on end. Would be a great plan if you were a dealer. Have one of your customers rent your car for $600/day (no legit customer will pay that for a 300C), and you launder cash. Best part is you don't even need to actually rent out your car - they're not going to complain that they didn't get a car, because they never needed it.
    - jlev 5y ago
      I rented a Tesla on Turo a few years ago, it was a blast to drive. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend renting one.
akmarinov 5y ago
In what sense? They’re quite a bit quicker than ICE cars and regeneration is something you need to get used to, but nothing that’s radically different. With these the big issue would be charging them - people might not know not to go to a gas station. Also wonder how the “full tank” policy will work with EVs where ideally you want to hover around 80% Where they might not be suitable rental cars is the reliability. There are some horror stories where people wait 6+ months for their cars to be fixed, based on parts availability, but Hertz probably has some service requirements built in the contract.
- nrjames 5y ago
  If they are ordering 100k of them, there's a chance Hertz gets a customized version of the software the specifically directs people to Superchargers and/or has some type of instructional flow they have to go through before they can drive.
- ricardobeat 5y ago
  With the new LFP batteries the recommended charge level is always 100%.
  - blendergeek 5y ago
    The new LFP batteries are still a future thing here in the USA for Tesla.
    - selectodude 5y ago
      Not anymore. And definitely not by the time Hertz actually takes delivery of these things. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/tesla-switching-to-lfp-batteries-in-all-standard-range-cars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/tesla-switching-to-lfp-batte...
    - DarmokJalad1701 5y ago
      Hertz presumably bought the SR+ trim, which is all going to be LFP batteries going forwarding including in the US
YPPH 5y ago
>My understanding is that Tesla vehicles differ quite a bit from regular ICE vehicles, to the point that there's a bit of a learning curve to operating the car. >I'd be interested to hear from a Tesla owner on this Not a Tesla owner, but I did take one for a 30 minute test drive. There wasn't really any learning curve except for that when you let your foot off the accelerator (gas?) pedal, the regenerative braking kicks in, and you start slowing down very quickly. I didn't touch the brake pedal for the whole drive. Got used to it in a few minutes. The hardest thing for me was the cruise control. Only a subset of autopilot features were enabled and I found it a bit difficult to operate.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  Tesla used to have "Standard" and "Low" settings for how strong the regenerative braking is, but just found an article that says they removed the low option, which would be a bummer in my opinion.
  - snek_case 5y ago
    It's way more energy efficient if you can learn to drive with regenerative braking. Otherwise you're just wasting energy as heat with your brake pads.
    - simfree 5y ago
      Coasting is way more efficient than regenerative braking slowing your roll, causing you to need to accelerate again. Hence why many non-car electrified rides disable Regen braking in Eco mode when your not accelerating or braking as keeping that mechanical energy & momentum is much more efficient than paying the conversion penalty to turn it back into electricity.
      - cbo100 5y ago
        As far as I can tell, from the somewhat minimal GUI Tesla gives you, and the general feeling while driving... You can "coast" with regen on, you just need to balance the accelerator at the point where you aren't adding power, but the car isn't taking power away. You won't see any green or black on the power usage bar. Coming down long mountain roads, it's somewhat easier than coasting in an ICE and having to continually shift down gears or ride the brakes (which is obviously bad).
zemptime 5y ago
I hopped in my Tesla for the first time and after a single stop sign where I stopped kind of weird (not honestly that bad), that was it. The Tesla person on the initial lesson assumed I'd driven one before. You get the hang of it really quick. Same story for many other people who've driven my car. If you're not using regenerative breaking it's pretty much like a normal car sans the small acceleration gas cars provide with no braking.
- jessriedel 5y ago
  > small acceleration gas cars provide with no braking Gas automatic cars :)
  - _Microft 5y ago
    In my experience cars with diesel engines and manual transmissions also had the tendency to creep forward instead of stalling while in first gear when neither brake nor accelerator pedal was stepped on.
    - lrem 5y ago
      All cars will creep forward with the first gear on. The thing is, if you're already going faster than 10km/h, they'll decelerate towards that surprisingly quickly.
      - tincholio 5y ago
        Not really. On petrol cars, if you let go of the clutch in 1st gear and not pushing on the gas, you'll most likely stall. Diesels often don't do this, and creep instead (all of this assuming you're letting go of the clutch slowly enough, otherwise, you'll stall for sure)
        ComputerGuru 5y ago
        It depends on the condition of the clutch. If it’s a newer clutch or in great shape: definitely not once the gear is fully engaged. I can’t drive my petrol cars in forward or reverse at driveway speeds without riding the clutch a bit to stop from going too fast.
HarHarVeryFunny 5y ago
My concern with renting one (which for now would stop me from doing it), is the scarcity of charging locations. Not sure how far apart they are in most locations nowadays, or what wait times are like, but if I'm on vacation (which is when I most often rent), then no hassle is worth it. There are gas stations everywhere.
- thehappypm 5y ago
  When you rent a car, do you pick the type of car today? I always have, I usually see a big list of cars, where larger/more luxurious is pricier. I imagine that's what Hertz will do here. Teslas on the menu, but if you don't want to, or are driving more than 200 miles, you should just go with a Camry.
- bdamm 5y ago
  There are high power chargers pretty much everywhere too. Welcome to 2021.
- amirhirsch 5y ago
  I was dubious renting a Tesla on turo in Hawaii but I think you would find that charging an electric car at the places you are staying is increasingly an option that is lower cost and less stressful than going to a gas station before going back to the airport. I also suspect they will have lower backend operating costs and potentially cost drivers less on additional insurance since they can operate in FSD and put the liability on Tesla.
- paranoidrobot 5y ago
  Tesla have a massive charging network of their own, plus you can use all/most of the other public charging stations. In most locations in North America, Europe, Australia as well as some Asian countries you have good access to charging infrastructure. Tesla's navigation software will show charging locations, as well as add stops automatically if you're planning a route that's too far for the current state of charge. Plugshare is a good site for finding chargers of all types. https://www.plugshare.com/ https://www.plugshare.com/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
caf 5y ago
We've given plenty of friends a chance to drive, it takes maybe 30 seconds to explain the drive stalk and park brake. The driving with regen is if anything similar to a dodgem car.
- FireBeyond 5y ago
  Hertz is poised to make a mint off the people who forget how to open the doors due to muscle memory.
  - caf 5y ago
    Since some recent software update the mechanical door release now drops the windows a little just like the electrical one.
    - FireBeyond 5y ago
      Huh. Audi owners have had that well, as long as they've had frameless doors.
- bink 5y ago
  The drive stalk and the parking brake, sure. But are you explaining to them how to shift into neutral? How to turn on/off the windshield wipers? Headlights? Pairing phones to use as keys? How to use the valet card? I have a model 3 but I forget this crap all the time. They'll need to provide decent documentation beyond the touch screen (and I'm sure they will).
  - stetrain 5y ago
    Most people won’t need to touch those things. Headlights and wipers are auto by default. Neutral is needed for car washes or towing which are both abnormal situations for a rental. And I kind of doubt they’re going to let you pair it with a phone key to the normal Tesla app like you own the car.
    - 5y ago
bdamm 5y ago
As a Tesla driver, I really want to rent a Tesla when I’m traveling.
ajb 5y ago
I rented an electric Zipcar recently (not a Tesla), without any previous experience of electric cars. My only problem was switching it on, which doesn't quite work like an ICE and there is some control position you need to adopt before it will let you do it. The ten minutes I spent on that were quite frustrating, since I was late and it seemed like I might not be able to get the car to work; also because Zipcar charge by the minute. But I had no problems after that.
theshrike79 5y ago
They might need some custom software from Tesla for the infotainment unit to allow people to pair their phones etc. Having to do a full reset of the head unit after every customer isn't really a good option. And I'm pretty sure they'll tap in to the car telemetry and they WILL know if you've been doing quarter mile runs on their car =)

by aqzman 5y ago

1123581321 5y ago

Try a test drive sometime. The Tesla stores only need to give a minute of explanation. A rental employee would do the same thing. They are easy to understand.

xiphias2 5y ago

As a non-Tesla owner, I'd love to rent a Tesla on my vacations just to try it before deciding on buying one. I'd say it's much better for renting than buying, as I know how I would use it beforehand.

SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
> As a non-Tesla owner, I'd love to rent a Tesla on my vacations just to try it before deciding on buying one. Me too. I actually looked into that a few months ago. In Boston Massachusetts, there is this place: https://www.teslarents.com/ https://www.teslarents.com/ But we were going to San Francisco not Boston, and there was nothing that I could google up. With the exception of Oslo, Norway; I've never seen so many Teslas as I did in the Bay area, but it seemed really hard to rent one for a few days. Maybe by the next time that I'm there a Tesla 3 will be standard at Hertz, but in 2021 you'll be lucky to get a Nissan. The competence and availability of even that, was low.
- bkev 5y ago
  Try Turo. There tend to be quite a few Teslas there. https://turo.com/ https://turo.com/
  - SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
    I'm not sure that I "get" Turo. this is ... Airbnb for cars? In any case, I don't think it would have worked for us, we handed the car back days later, in a different city. Which is fine for Hertz, but probably not for a Turo "host"? It's likely that by the next time we're there, things will be different.
    - hunter2_ 5y ago
      Yes, like airbnb. The host delivers and retrieves the vehicle within whatever operating radius they want to offer, so two cities is very unlikely. However, I think there is some kind of variable delivery fee, so as long as you want to pay that and get the owner to agree to set a gigantic radius, it might work. https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991040-Choosing-delivery-for-your-trip https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991040-Choosin... says: > You’re not able to set one location for pickup and a different location for drop off when you book your trip. But once the trip is booked, you can request to change your delivery pickup or drop off location. Once the trip is in progress you can still request to change the drop off location. The new location must be one where the host already offers delivery, or it must be within their custom delivery radius.
    - FireBeyond 5y ago
      Turo is a huge market for laundering cash. In my area there are multiple Chrysler 300Cs that are "available" to rent for $600/day. Except they're not available. They're actively being rented for weeks on end. Would be a great plan if you were a dealer. Have one of your customers rent your car for $600/day (no legit customer will pay that for a 300C), and you launder cash. Best part is you don't even need to actually rent out your car - they're not going to complain that they didn't get a car, because they never needed it.
  - jlev 5y ago
    I rented a Tesla on Turo a few years ago, it was a blast to drive. It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend renting one.

akmarinov 5y ago

In what sense? They’re quite a bit quicker than ICE cars and regeneration is something you need to get used to, but nothing that’s radically different. With these the big issue would be charging them - people might not know not to go to a gas station. Also wonder how the “full tank” policy will work with EVs where ideally you want to hover around 80% Where they might not be suitable rental cars is the reliability. There are some horror stories where people wait 6+ months for their cars to be fixed, based on parts availability, but Hertz probably has some service requirements built in the contract.

nrjames 5y ago
If they are ordering 100k of them, there's a chance Hertz gets a customized version of the software the specifically directs people to Superchargers and/or has some type of instructional flow they have to go through before they can drive.
ricardobeat 5y ago
With the new LFP batteries the recommended charge level is always 100%.
- blendergeek 5y ago
  The new LFP batteries are still a future thing here in the USA for Tesla.
  - selectodude 5y ago
    Not anymore. And definitely not by the time Hertz actually takes delivery of these things. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/tesla-switching-to-lfp-batteries-in-all-standard-range-cars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/tesla-switching-to-lfp-batte...
  - DarmokJalad1701 5y ago
    Hertz presumably bought the SR+ trim, which is all going to be LFP batteries going forwarding including in the US

YPPH 5y ago

>My understanding is that Tesla vehicles differ quite a bit from regular ICE vehicles, to the point that there's a bit of a learning curve to operating the car. >I'd be interested to hear from a Tesla owner on this Not a Tesla owner, but I did take one for a 30 minute test drive. There wasn't really any learning curve except for that when you let your foot off the accelerator (gas?) pedal, the regenerative braking kicks in, and you start slowing down very quickly. I didn't touch the brake pedal for the whole drive. Got used to it in a few minutes. The hardest thing for me was the cruise control. Only a subset of autopilot features were enabled and I found it a bit difficult to operate.

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
Tesla used to have "Standard" and "Low" settings for how strong the regenerative braking is, but just found an article that says they removed the low option, which would be a bummer in my opinion.
- snek_case 5y ago
  It's way more energy efficient if you can learn to drive with regenerative braking. Otherwise you're just wasting energy as heat with your brake pads.
  - simfree 5y ago
    Coasting is way more efficient than regenerative braking slowing your roll, causing you to need to accelerate again. Hence why many non-car electrified rides disable Regen braking in Eco mode when your not accelerating or braking as keeping that mechanical energy & momentum is much more efficient than paying the conversion penalty to turn it back into electricity.
    - cbo100 5y ago
      As far as I can tell, from the somewhat minimal GUI Tesla gives you, and the general feeling while driving... You can "coast" with regen on, you just need to balance the accelerator at the point where you aren't adding power, but the car isn't taking power away. You won't see any green or black on the power usage bar. Coming down long mountain roads, it's somewhat easier than coasting in an ICE and having to continually shift down gears or ride the brakes (which is obviously bad).

zemptime 5y ago

I hopped in my Tesla for the first time and after a single stop sign where I stopped kind of weird (not honestly that bad), that was it. The Tesla person on the initial lesson assumed I'd driven one before. You get the hang of it really quick. Same story for many other people who've driven my car. If you're not using regenerative breaking it's pretty much like a normal car sans the small acceleration gas cars provide with no braking.

jessriedel 5y ago
> small acceleration gas cars provide with no braking Gas automatic cars :)
- _Microft 5y ago
  In my experience cars with diesel engines and manual transmissions also had the tendency to creep forward instead of stalling while in first gear when neither brake nor accelerator pedal was stepped on.
  - lrem 5y ago
    All cars will creep forward with the first gear on. The thing is, if you're already going faster than 10km/h, they'll decelerate towards that surprisingly quickly.
    - tincholio 5y ago
      Not really. On petrol cars, if you let go of the clutch in 1st gear and not pushing on the gas, you'll most likely stall. Diesels often don't do this, and creep instead (all of this assuming you're letting go of the clutch slowly enough, otherwise, you'll stall for sure)
      - ComputerGuru 5y ago
        It depends on the condition of the clutch. If it’s a newer clutch or in great shape: definitely not once the gear is fully engaged. I can’t drive my petrol cars in forward or reverse at driveway speeds without riding the clutch a bit to stop from going too fast.

HarHarVeryFunny 5y ago

My concern with renting one (which for now would stop me from doing it), is the scarcity of charging locations. Not sure how far apart they are in most locations nowadays, or what wait times are like, but if I'm on vacation (which is when I most often rent), then no hassle is worth it. There are gas stations everywhere.

thehappypm 5y ago
When you rent a car, do you pick the type of car today? I always have, I usually see a big list of cars, where larger/more luxurious is pricier. I imagine that's what Hertz will do here. Teslas on the menu, but if you don't want to, or are driving more than 200 miles, you should just go with a Camry.
bdamm 5y ago
There are high power chargers pretty much everywhere too. Welcome to 2021.
amirhirsch 5y ago
I was dubious renting a Tesla on turo in Hawaii but I think you would find that charging an electric car at the places you are staying is increasingly an option that is lower cost and less stressful than going to a gas station before going back to the airport. I also suspect they will have lower backend operating costs and potentially cost drivers less on additional insurance since they can operate in FSD and put the liability on Tesla.
paranoidrobot 5y ago
Tesla have a massive charging network of their own, plus you can use all/most of the other public charging stations. In most locations in North America, Europe, Australia as well as some Asian countries you have good access to charging infrastructure. Tesla's navigation software will show charging locations, as well as add stops automatically if you're planning a route that's too far for the current state of charge. Plugshare is a good site for finding chargers of all types. https://www.plugshare.com/ https://www.plugshare.com/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

caf 5y ago

We've given plenty of friends a chance to drive, it takes maybe 30 seconds to explain the drive stalk and park brake. The driving with regen is if anything similar to a dodgem car.

FireBeyond 5y ago
Hertz is poised to make a mint off the people who forget how to open the doors due to muscle memory.
- caf 5y ago
  Since some recent software update the mechanical door release now drops the windows a little just like the electrical one.
  - FireBeyond 5y ago
    Huh. Audi owners have had that well, as long as they've had frameless doors.
bink 5y ago
The drive stalk and the parking brake, sure. But are you explaining to them how to shift into neutral? How to turn on/off the windshield wipers? Headlights? Pairing phones to use as keys? How to use the valet card? I have a model 3 but I forget this crap all the time. They'll need to provide decent documentation beyond the touch screen (and I'm sure they will).
- stetrain 5y ago
  Most people won’t need to touch those things. Headlights and wipers are auto by default. Neutral is needed for car washes or towing which are both abnormal situations for a rental. And I kind of doubt they’re going to let you pair it with a phone key to the normal Tesla app like you own the car.
  - 5y ago

bdamm 5y ago

As a Tesla driver, I really want to rent a Tesla when I’m traveling.

ajb 5y ago

I rented an electric Zipcar recently (not a Tesla), without any previous experience of electric cars. My only problem was switching it on, which doesn't quite work like an ICE and there is some control position you need to adopt before it will let you do it. The ten minutes I spent on that were quite frustrating, since I was late and it seemed like I might not be able to get the car to work; also because Zipcar charge by the minute. But I had no problems after that.

theshrike79 5y ago

They might need some custom software from Tesla for the infotainment unit to allow people to pair their phones etc. Having to do a full reset of the head unit after every customer isn't really a good option. And I'm pretty sure they'll tap in to the car telemetry and they WILL know if you've been doing quarter mile runs on their car =)