4 ms·

The value of the cars almost always goes down, and rental car companies churn through cars while making money on rentals. The problem with Teslas is not so much

The value of the cars almost always goes down, and rental car companies churn through cars while making money on rentals. The problem with Teslas is not so much the depreciation, but more so that people don't want to rent them. They were marketed as some sort of upgrade but given the maturity of public chargers, I do not want an EV if I travel somewhere and rent a car, let alone pay a premium. With a gas car I know I can get gas wherever cars go and that will take a few minutes. With an EV I would have to work out whether my hotel has EV charging/plan travels around chargers in an area not known to me.

xenospn 2y ago
I had this issue recently somewhere in the Midwest, and had to specifically say I wanted a gas car because almost everything they offered me was an EV and I really didn’t want to mess around with chargers.
genocidicbunny 2y ago
> With a gas car I know I can get gas wherever cars go and that will take a few minutes. With an EV I would have to work out whether my hotel has EV charging/plan travels around chargers in an area not known to me. Exactly. Most people rent a car when they're traveling, so they're likely to be in an unfamiliar place. Having to figure out and plan around charging the EV is added annoyance at that point. Sure, if you're familiar with the area and know where the chargers are and have some sort of regular schedule that allows you to use them, EVs work well. When I'm driving through rural Idaho with kids in the back who are getting a bit tired and bored, I don't want to have to find an EV charger. The kids aren't going to be happy about having to hang out for 30-40 minutes in some random charging station parking lot. And I'm not going to be terribly happy about extending my drive by that much when a 10 minute break would have done the job. Until EV charging spots are as ubiquitous and fast as gas stations, you will not solve the problem of range anxiety. It's somewhat parallel to the situation when cars first came about -- there weren't a lot of gas stations. But cars at the time offered significant benefits over other methods of transportation, which made the tradeoff palatable. What do EV's bring to the table -- better acceleration (useless for most people), quietness (most noise while driving is not from the engine)? Most every 'feature' they have over ICE cars is something that ICE cars can have too, or don't matter for the vast vast majority of drivers. They're just another car, but with the added annoyance of using a fuel source that's not as commonly available.
skywhopper 2y ago
This isn’t an EV issue. Hertz is expanding their EV options. Tesla is the problem here.

xenospn 2y ago

I had this issue recently somewhere in the Midwest, and had to specifically say I wanted a gas car because almost everything they offered me was an EV and I really didn’t want to mess around with chargers.

genocidicbunny 2y ago

> With a gas car I know I can get gas wherever cars go and that will take a few minutes. With an EV I would have to work out whether my hotel has EV charging/plan travels around chargers in an area not known to me. Exactly. Most people rent a car when they're traveling, so they're likely to be in an unfamiliar place. Having to figure out and plan around charging the EV is added annoyance at that point. Sure, if you're familiar with the area and know where the chargers are and have some sort of regular schedule that allows you to use them, EVs work well. When I'm driving through rural Idaho with kids in the back who are getting a bit tired and bored, I don't want to have to find an EV charger. The kids aren't going to be happy about having to hang out for 30-40 minutes in some random charging station parking lot. And I'm not going to be terribly happy about extending my drive by that much when a 10 minute break would have done the job. Until EV charging spots are as ubiquitous and fast as gas stations, you will not solve the problem of range anxiety. It's somewhat parallel to the situation when cars first came about -- there weren't a lot of gas stations. But cars at the time offered significant benefits over other methods of transportation, which made the tradeoff palatable. What do EV's bring to the table -- better acceleration (useless for most people), quietness (most noise while driving is not from the engine)? Most every 'feature' they have over ICE cars is something that ICE cars can have too, or don't matter for the vast vast majority of drivers. They're just another car, but with the added annoyance of using a fuel source that's not as commonly available.

skywhopper 2y ago

This isn’t an EV issue. Hertz is expanding their EV options. Tesla is the problem here.