I may or may not have ranted that when I picked up my brand new Kia 2 1/2 years ago, it was not charged, even though I specifically called middle of the week to remind salesperson...anyway.... A year later my neighbor rented an EV when his regular car was getting serviced. It was delivered seriously undercharged. He had already returned it before I spoke with him because obviously he could have charged at my house Fast forward to this weekend. Another neighbor had a daughter visiting, she rented an EV......same freaking thing, delivered uncharged. They had to deal with it all weekend to make sure they could make it where they needed to go. Seriously, do they deliver ICE vehicles in this condition? What a level of stupidity, or is it deliberate. 3 experiences 3 families within 500 yards of each other. Crazy
Are these well-known rental companies or fly-by-nights? How did the rental company (companies?) explain the problem to your neighbors? What was the return deal when they rented the EVs--were the renters expected to return them fully charged? Were they the first to rent these two vehicles?
Would have to agree here. Last car I rented, you had to sign you received it with full gas and return same way to avoid additional charges. EV's should be treated the same when renting. Dan
This brings up the question of how are they to be charged? Do they come with a portable EVSE level 1 or 2 or is it the responsibility of the renter to find a DCFC to charge the vehicle? Since many people renting an EV (assuming they only have ICE vehicle) may not have an EVSE at home I hope the vehicle comes with a level 1 charger to get some charge overnight. This would be helpful if the renter is not doing a long road trip the next day and a general commute or running around.
Perhaps the previous renters paid the zero-charge fee, but the rental company didn't bother to charge the EVs before renting them out again. Hence my question about whether the neighbors were the first people to rent these particular EVs (and my additional question, were they the first to ever rent EVs from these particular company locations).
If the car came fully charged, as it should be, the 120v charging is no big deal Just like a gas vehicle, one needs to charge it as needed. But it should never be delivered discharged
This discussion makes me wonder if they just used a 120V outlet to trickle charge it and there simply wasn’t enough time between rentals. It seems to me that to rent EVs properly a company needs to either: 1) invest in an L2 charger for every EV and plan on enough time between rentals Or 2) invest in a modest DC charger (25kW or so ought to do it) and put the car on the charger if needed (less than 80% charged) Either should work for a smaller location. I’m not sure how they would handle a large city with lots of quick turnover. Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
I talked to a lady at an EA a while back. She had a long term EV rental. They gave her no education, and she didn't know anything about charging until she rented this car. She had to cancel an appointment because she didn't have enuf juice or time.
Grizzle-e has a small single phase Commercial 25KW (Needs a ~150A Circuit, uses a little under 110A@240v) well under $20K. Return,clean,plug-in. Should charge in < 3 hours. They likely have 3-phase available at the location, so you could probably put several 50KW stations up without too much difficulty. You don't really need that many, and an hour post-cleaning would likely be more than enough for most returns to be over 80% with just 50KW. I specifically rented an EV from Hertz in Sacremento, totally loved it. Happened to be a free Volta abut 1/2mi from my Hotel, but I 'plugshared alternatives just in case, and I have an EA and EVGO account. They were trying to foist a Tesla on me, apparently someone had grabbed my NiroEV literally starting to drive out just before me, who was clueless. . ., and vacated the vehicle at the exit gate, so I grabbed it. I told the guy there, I didn't know anything about charging a Tesla, and I was not prepared to figure it out cold, but that I owned a NiroEV, and traveled with it not infrequently. I'm sure I could have found a supercharger or destination station somewhere, but I'd already plotted for CCS. Once NACS is the standard it won't matter. The problem is you can't just foist an EV on someone unsuspecting, nor should you be renting one to someone who is not familiar unless it's like a local rental where someone wants to try it out or something. It was totally unclear on how I was supposed to return the car. I was told, "Just bring it back with at least 70% charge I guess". OK, sure, no problem. If you want to rent an EV, you need to have an education/verification page, and you need to park the EV's in dedicated spaces so during the 'grab whatever is there' times people are not hopping in them unbeknownst. I would put a simple paper sign on the steering wheel "Electric Vehicle, if you don't know what you are getting into you might want something else" kind of thing. I think it's great they offer EV's but I think they (the rental company) needs to have an agreement with EA or EVGO or whatever and just make it an add-on for a nominal fee (Like a fuel purchase option), or frankly just include it. Most of these cars sell to consumers with "Free Electricity" from one of the charging outfits for like a year or something. Renting apparently you are "on your own". They should REALLY have, again, a printed page, with charging stations, and/or agreements, or maybe a card/code you get with the vehicle. Tesla chargers know the car. CCS needs to be the same way, you rent from Herts, you go to EA (or whoever) plug in, it recognizes the car, and starts charging. Ditto if you are renting a Tesla. I rented the NiroEV just to see what the experience would be. It was a win for me, I loved the car, despite the fact that they swapped sides on the steering wheel buttons which drove me nuts, but I knew exactly what I was getting into, and I ended up returning it with a 90% charge. My Ex-wife rented a Tesla here in town, asked me if she could use my home charger before turning it in. I had to say probably not unless she had a J1772 to Tesla adapter and 6 to 8 hours. It's just nuts, fortunately she had the sense to ask, and there are at least 3 supercharging stations within 15 miles of the airport, which was the sane solution. But why on earth . . . the people at Hertz had NO IDEA how that worked. I also asked when they tried to give me a Tesla: "Can I just plug in an use a credit card at the station, or do I have to register and download the app?" . . . Crickets. YMMV,
