The Hertz situation is in my opinion more their own fault vs Tesla. I’ve rented Teslas from them every time they were available when traveling in like 10-12 cities and all of them were poorly handled by local staff imho. As a Tesla owner from back when there was long wait lists (aka before the price cuts), I do sympathize with the insane depreciation aspect though.
First, I think they were just too far ahead of the market. I don’t think there are enough EV owners out there for this to work well.
I wouldn’t mind renting an EV, I’ve done it. But that’s because I’m an owner. I wouldn’t expect any random ICE owner to be ready to just accept one.
But from talking to my local Hertz (I asked him about this when I had to rent from them last year) basically no one in my area wants them. I assume very few of their customers are existing owners.
On top of that I know that they’ve had big problems because even though they’re saving a ton of normal maintenance the cost of scratch and dent/fender bender stuff is way higher than expected since only Tesla sells Tesla parts. Makes me think going with another brand would’ve been smarter on this specific point.
There’s of course anti anti-EV sentiment out there combined with anti-Musk stuff now. There’s no way that’s helping.
I think renting EVs is a good idea. I understand they chose Tesla both because they have the volume and the charging network. But I think that bit them on repairs and sentiment.
Mostly I think they were just a couple years too early. I think they thought the market would move faster than it has. I thought it would.
Once more drivers are used to EVs a lot of the problems go away. Then all your left with is charging and repair costs, both fully solvable.
> First, I think they were just too far ahead of the market. I don’t think there are enough EV owners out there for this to work well.
This is exactly the problem. They do zero education of substance to help a non-EV driver get used to the experience. If I wasn’t already an experienced EV driver (or intentionally using the rental as an extended test drive), I’d be super pissed personally as they really leave you hanging.
- Tesla themselves do this. If you book a test drive, you'll get emails where they tell you to watch a list of Youtube videos on how to handle the car. Nothing more will be done once you show up to do it - you'll do a little paperwork, you'll be guided onto the lot and maybe shown how to shift into D.
Same procedure when you buy one (source: i did) - paperwork, here's your keycards, follow me onto the lot, mount license plate, bye!
I mean - i get it, i neither want nor need a flower bouquet, a ceremony and some champagne when getting handed the keys to my new car - but something in between?!
- Other car rentals do it as well. We rented some Iveco van to move furniture from Europcar lately.
Paperwork, here's your key, this is the generic direction the van is. Enter van, be surprised it's automatic, start it up, shift into D, be even more surprised it has a second parking brake. Driving to the destination, another surprise: the car only goes up to 96km/h, no limiter seems to be active. Discover by accident that theres two driving modes: Eco and Power - switch to Power and you can drive faster facepalm.
> Same procedure when you buy one (source: i did) - paperwork, here's your keycards, follow me onto the lot, mount license plate, bye!
They offered to do way more for me, I politely declined.
> Tesla themselves do this. If you book a test drive, you'll get emails where they tell you to watch a list of Youtube videos on how to handle the car.
This is different though, you intentionally went in to drive a Tesla, that puts more onus on you. You didn’t go to pick up a Mazda and then got switched to a Tesla as an “upgrade.”
> Other car rentals do it as well.
I had the same thought and have used that point in debates in the past on this topic. For some reason, electric is different to people and they just won’t accept logic and reason. What’s different about getting a Tesla when expecting a Taurus vs getting a manual transmission diesel U-Haul truck when expecting automatic and gasoline?
