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It depends on the situation. It would work great with 2 things in place 1. The rental company has car chargers on the lot and keeps their cars charged at a re
by cogman10 3y ago
It depends on the situation.
It would work great with 2 things in place
1. The rental company has car chargers on the lot and keeps their cars charged at a reasonable level.
2. You are staying at a hotel/location with car chargers.
If those two things are in play, then electric rental cars make a TON of sense. Even shorter range ones as you are likely mostly puttering around the location where you are renting. In that case, you are likely to want to do the "drive around all day, charge while you sleep" that most EV owners do.
Unfortunately, while some hotels do have chargers, they tend to be the more expensive hotels and they tend to only have 1 or 2 slots for charging.
> On top of that, charging is still way less convenient than refueling an ICE car
Really depends. Charging is more convenient if you the place you park your car has a charger. Charging is less convenient if you are driving long distances or you need to recharge with no room for downtime.
- ghaff 3y agoI suspect fewer people putter around a location though. At one point if I was just doing a trip with some stops in core Silicon Valley I’d have automatically rented. Generally more likely to Uber it these days.
- dgfitz 3y agoI think you’re underestimating the number of people who fly into an airport and their destination is 1-4 hours away by car afterwards. Edit: and their hotel is a solid 45 minutes away from their work site.
- cogman10 3y ago> I think you’re underestimating the number of people who fly into an airport and their destination is 1-4 hours away by car afterwards. I probably am, because I don't think that's super common. Airports are everywhere. Even for my extreme rural hometown, there's a commercial airport 45 minutes away (Though, granted, we'd go to the airport 2 hours away because it's bigger and we'd have to fly there anyways to get to the 45 minute airport). The full flights and large planes I've been on haven't been to Pocatello Idaho. Which is what gives me the impression that people aren't typically flying to rural destinations. On the other hand, a flight to Atlanta, Ronald Reagan, or Dallas are always filled to the brim.
- Macha 3y agoTravellers may choose less optimal airports at their destination for a bunch of reasons. There may be limited connectivity, for example. If I'm flying to San Jose, I'm landing in SFO because to fly to SJC from my nearby airport at the departure side would require a flight connection. Even when there are flights from departure city to arrival city directly, they might be avoided because of other reasons like cost or flight times. Or you know, you might just be flying Ryanair who will fly you to Frankfurt Hahn airport (nearer Luxumburg than Frankfurt) or Paris Beauvais (nearer Normandy than Paris)
- malfist 3y agoIf your destination is 4 hours away from the airport, I'm sorry to say but you picked the wrong airport to fly into. And why are you picking a 45 minute commute if work is picking up the tab for a hotel. Your whole example smells of a strawman
- wl 3y ago> And why are you picking a 45 minute commute if work is picking up the tab for a hotel. I've had work trips where the only decent hotel was an hour away from where I needed to be.
- dgfitz 3y agoYou’ve never worked in Yuma Arizona apparently. Edit: my straw man smells like dry, arid, desert. The cacti are unbelievable. Edit 2: the amount of willful ignorance in your response is absurdly enlightening, thank you.
- malfist 3y agoYuma Arizona has it's own airport. Yuma Arizona has four Hiltons (the only brand I checked) So if you're flying into Yuma for work and you're flying into an airport 4 hours away and staying in a hotel 45 minutes away, you are really doing something wrong.
- dgfitz 3y agoThere are no direct flights to Yuma from where I live. I stayed in a Hilton. My drive from hotel to work was an hour. Edit: it’s not worth dying on this hill, you’re just wrong.
- malfist 3y agoYou're saying there's no American Airlines near where you live? I find that hard to believe. Regardless, even if you fly into phoenix, that's not a 4 hour drive away. Regardless, even if a few underserved locations in the US are a 4 hour drive away from their nearest airport, it doesn't mean that EVs don't make sense as a rental car.
- rainsford 3y agoEven in that situation, having charging available at the hotel would make an EV at least as convenient if not more so than a gas rental car.