“We focused on operational excellence and fleet optimization to produce financial results that facilitated investment in our strategic priorities, like electrification, while enhancing returns to our shareholders and being in the service of our customers,” Scherr said in the earnings call.
There are fewer moving parts on EV vehicles than gas-burning cars, which means there are fewer failure points on components that can make for costly replacements.
Additionally, the less time a vehicle is receiving repairs at the auto shop means it’s spending more time on the road and thus has more opportunities to make money as a rental.
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I think that makes a lot of sense. Not only the fact that EVs are less expensive to maintain, but I would think that consumers would like to have the choice of renting an EV vs an ICE vehicle, so I’d think that demand would also go up.
Question for those that have rented an EV before, how do rental agencies handle the refueling charges? Obviously with an ICE auto, they ask you to either refuel before returning or get charged a refueling fee. How does that work with EVs?
'38Packard
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I haven’t rented an EV, but Hertz has sent me emails about it. When I checked it out, they say you get one full charge included…so you don’t have to return the car charged. I think they recommend that you have at least 10% charge when you return it.
Mike
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Interesting. One time Hertz asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a Tesla. I asked them I needed to return it charged and they said I did, so I declined. This was in the early days, it should be noted.
I had the same experience with Avis, and they said I didn’t need to charge it, so I accepted. It makes total sense just to bake the charging cost into the rental price.
Of course, they could do that for petrol as well. Is taking the time for charging the difference?
DB2
Hertz bought a fleet of Teslas to rent. It takes 20 minutes max using a Tesla supercharger to recharge even if they do ask people for that now. If Hertz was brilliant they’d just have L3 superchargers on their biggest airport sites, and say “just get it here.”
Is taking the time for charging the difference?
@DrBob2 it would be a PITA for non-Teslas, unless the renter happened to be staying at a near-airport hotel that happened to have a functional charging port available overnight. IRA may do something about that, but who knows.
FC
'19 M3 SR+
Half my family wants an EV. The other half generally older has sworn they will never own an EV.
I wonder how many people who have said no never will I buy an EV go ahead and rent one to find out if they like driving an EV?
They could be inspecting and cleaning the car while charging to get faster turn around. I think they’d rather do this than have someone sitting offsite waiting for a charge to complete before returning the car.
Mike
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This is a really good idea!
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When I rented an EV from National, I simply returned it.
From a practical standpoint, it really isn’t feasible to return it “full” since there may not be a public charging station anywhere near the rental agency (like there likely would be a gas station).
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You can do a pre-paid gas option if you like. The problem is that it isn’t worth it unless you return the car nearly empty. A nearly empty ICE might cost $60 to fill up. A nearly empty EV probably costs about $25. As a guess I’d say, it is only probably costing them about $10-15 on average. That amount is easy to price in.
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It’s easier to have a supercharger at the rental garage than a gas pump. That changes the refueling logistics.
The Captain
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The usual thing at car rental agencies in the US is to gouge customers if the agency has to gas up the car. Every rental I have had, they warn me that, if I don’t return it with a full tank, they will charge me a bunch to top it up.
Steve
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So, why aren’t they ‘gouging’ EV top ups? Or will that come in time?
DB2
I’m sure it will. By the way, the most expensive gas station in metro Detroit, is the one very near the airport, where people want to stop to top up their rental, so they don’t get gouged by the rental company.
Steve
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I suspect it’s because EV “top ups” are significantly less expensive than gas top ups, and EV’s take longer to charge.
It can cost $40-50 to fill up a gas tank from empty That’s not nothing. If you don’t charge consumers for the gas differential, they have a meaningful incentive to return the car close to empty if they pick it up with a half a tank or more. And it’s usually more convenient for all concerned to have the customer fill the tank on their way in to returning the car.
But even the thirstiest of EV’s probably don’t require much more than $10-12 to fill up, and it’s actually pretty inconvenient for the customer to do it on the day of returning the car. So there’s not a lot of economic benefit to the renter, and much more annoyance to the customer, if you “gouge” for EV top ups.
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A couple of reasons, IMO.
Since EVs have lower maintenance and will probably last in the rental fleet longer they want to encourage EV renters, especially first time EV drivers to try it. So the sales pitch at the counter sounds like a great deal…if you rent an ICE you must refuel or pay a lot for us to do it…with the EV it is free, but barely costs the company anything. And they have to plug it in anyway to top it off.
Also, many people (at least pre Covid) would rent a car and not drive it much so it gets returned half or more full anyway.
Also, most ICE cars show “full” at various levels, maybe a gallon or two off.
While every EV shows you a miles remaining number and/or a percentage within 1% or 1 mile so you’d have to set a number that is good enough to not annoy the customer so better to allow any level at least for now
Mike
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Don’t rent, take the bus.
The Captain
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Unlike Communistical countries, Shiny-land does not have buses going everywhere. Buses worked for me in Seattle: shuttle from SeaTac to downtown, city bus to the Boeing HQ and Museum of Flight, monorail to the fairgrounds, feet for everywhere else, but Seattle is a well known Communistical hotbed. There is no bus service to the far west Detroit burb I live in. There is no bus service to the geezer community outside of Florence, AZ, where my mom lived. In Florence itself, there is one bus route running from the northeast corner of town to the southwest corner, with many locations as many as 5-6 blocks away from the bus route. And Shiny-land has “thought leaders”, like Sean Hannity, bellowing that public transit is a Communistical plot to take people’s “freedom” away.
Steve
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In a ‘Capitalistical’ country do what Capitalistical workers and consumers do, strike, protest, and boycot. Or move to a ‘Communistical’ paradise. Unlike real Communistical countries (USSR, East Germany, North Korea, Cuba) Capitalistical countries don’t have walls to keep you in.
Another choice you have in a ‘Capitalistical’ country is to create a rental agency that offers one free tankful of gas with every rental. Don’t let such a brilliant business opportunity go to waste.
The Captain