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According to Car and Driver, a Hertz spokesperson said that ‘customers can return the EVs not fully recharged "for now," a difference from the rules for returni

According to Car and Driver, a Hertz spokesperson said that ‘customers can return the EVs not fully recharged "for now," a difference from the rules for returning gasoline-powered vehicles.’ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38052601/hertz-buying-100000-tesla-rental-evs/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38052601/hertz-buying-100...

pokerhobo 5y ago
The cost of electricity is probably less than $5, plus the time they spend cleaning the car for the next person they can get to 80% charge
- hughes 5y ago
  The more significant cost to Hertz would be the hours spent charging before the vehicle is back in service
  - bdamm 5y ago
    Hertz has probably done the math on this.
    - burmanm 5y ago
      The same way they went bankrupt?
  - kjksf 5y ago
    People tend to not rent cars at night. So the time spent by a Hertz employee is 1 minute to plug and then unplug the car. And if the car isn't fully charged and someone wants to rent it, they can either wait additional 30 minutes for full charge or get not-fully-charged car immediately and charge it at a later time. Either way, it's effectively zero time and cost to Hertz.
    - HWR_14 5y ago
      I frequently (pre-COVID) saw cars were literally being turned as fast as possible because people were waiting for them. The idea that an N (N << total number of EVs) car wide throughput problem with 30 minute cycle time isn't a bottleneck is insanely naive to me.
- refurb 5y ago
  Wow! You are very optimistic about this. I assume you’ll eventually see a $50 “recharge” plus electrical costs marked up 100%. Or of course, you could just pre-pay and sign up for the $50 program and return it “empty”.
  - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
    Assuming the rental market is at least somewhat comparative I doubt this will happen. When you return a ICE car partially empty someone has to either bring gas to the vehicle or drive the vehicle to a pump. Even though this is probably on-site it is very labor intensive and most rental places are pretty low staff. I could see future EV ones being entirely self service. Anyway an EV can just be charged where you park assuming they wire each spot with an EV charger which I think makes sense since doing an n+1 charger is probably not much more. I think the you will just pay whatever the normal charger electricity price would be.
    - FireBeyond 5y ago
      Estimates are that each supercharger slot costs Tesla over $100,000 for permitting, install, equipment. Have you been to a rental car company lately? Most don't give the impression of being flush with cash. In order to get the best charging speed and turn your cars around, do you see them laying out $100K per vehicle/slot?
      - Sebb767 5y ago
        That's in public places. When you're doing a few in a row on ground that is already yours, it's going to be quite a bit cheaper. Not cheap, but cheaper.
      - patd 5y ago
        are cars really going from one customer to another after an hour or so ? Otherwise you don’t need to have superchargers, you can just use a normal charger which is a few hundreds dollars, probably less at the scale of Hertz.
      - 5y ago
- FireBeyond 5y ago
  "30 minutes to 80%" assumes every Hertz dealership is going to have multiple latest-gen superchargers. I think that's ... optimistic. Especially for franchise operations, some of which are quite run down. Other than that, you're going to have multiple hours of downtime where that car is not making you money. The cost of gas isn't $7.50/ga either, especially for a corporate account the size of Hertz. Doesn't mean they won't charge you that, though.
HWR_14 5y ago
Sure, but that's "for now". They're not likely to give up that revenue source forever. They'll eventually have parity between the top-off costs for EVs and ICE cars and pocket the lower cost of gas. (although, it could easily not be a lower cost because of the cost in time.)
- Sebb767 5y ago
  They will have to, at least for the foreseeable future. Having to rent the car another hour just to get it to a reasonable charge level is going to make gasoline rentals a lot more attractive.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    A lot of people (esp. who aren't paying for it themselves) pre-pay the fill up at the end. Those same people won't notice a difference either way.

pokerhobo 5y ago

The cost of electricity is probably less than $5, plus the time they spend cleaning the car for the next person they can get to 80% charge

hughes 5y ago
The more significant cost to Hertz would be the hours spent charging before the vehicle is back in service
- bdamm 5y ago
  Hertz has probably done the math on this.
  - burmanm 5y ago
    The same way they went bankrupt?
- kjksf 5y ago
  People tend to not rent cars at night. So the time spent by a Hertz employee is 1 minute to plug and then unplug the car. And if the car isn't fully charged and someone wants to rent it, they can either wait additional 30 minutes for full charge or get not-fully-charged car immediately and charge it at a later time. Either way, it's effectively zero time and cost to Hertz.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    I frequently (pre-COVID) saw cars were literally being turned as fast as possible because people were waiting for them. The idea that an N (N << total number of EVs) car wide throughput problem with 30 minute cycle time isn't a bottleneck is insanely naive to me.
refurb 5y ago
Wow! You are very optimistic about this. I assume you’ll eventually see a $50 “recharge” plus electrical costs marked up 100%. Or of course, you could just pre-pay and sign up for the $50 program and return it “empty”.
- KingMachiavelli 5y ago
  Assuming the rental market is at least somewhat comparative I doubt this will happen. When you return a ICE car partially empty someone has to either bring gas to the vehicle or drive the vehicle to a pump. Even though this is probably on-site it is very labor intensive and most rental places are pretty low staff. I could see future EV ones being entirely self service. Anyway an EV can just be charged where you park assuming they wire each spot with an EV charger which I think makes sense since doing an n+1 charger is probably not much more. I think the you will just pay whatever the normal charger electricity price would be.
  - FireBeyond 5y ago
    Estimates are that each supercharger slot costs Tesla over $100,000 for permitting, install, equipment. Have you been to a rental car company lately? Most don't give the impression of being flush with cash. In order to get the best charging speed and turn your cars around, do you see them laying out $100K per vehicle/slot?
    - Sebb767 5y ago
      That's in public places. When you're doing a few in a row on ground that is already yours, it's going to be quite a bit cheaper. Not cheap, but cheaper.
    - patd 5y ago
      are cars really going from one customer to another after an hour or so ? Otherwise you don’t need to have superchargers, you can just use a normal charger which is a few hundreds dollars, probably less at the scale of Hertz.
    - 5y ago
FireBeyond 5y ago
"30 minutes to 80%" assumes every Hertz dealership is going to have multiple latest-gen superchargers. I think that's ... optimistic. Especially for franchise operations, some of which are quite run down. Other than that, you're going to have multiple hours of downtime where that car is not making you money. The cost of gas isn't $7.50/ga either, especially for a corporate account the size of Hertz. Doesn't mean they won't charge you that, though.

HWR_14 5y ago

Sure, but that's "for now". They're not likely to give up that revenue source forever. They'll eventually have parity between the top-off costs for EVs and ICE cars and pocket the lower cost of gas. (although, it could easily not be a lower cost because of the cost in time.)

Sebb767 5y ago
They will have to, at least for the foreseeable future. Having to rent the car another hour just to get it to a reasonable charge level is going to make gasoline rentals a lot more attractive.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  A lot of people (esp. who aren't paying for it themselves) pre-pay the fill up at the end. Those same people won't notice a difference either way.