Man that Hertz.

John Welsh said:

In reply to bludroptop :

I suspect the outgoing man made a killing for himself in his brief time at Hertz.  

His compensation was absurd. The largest part of that was company stock, which may or may not have fully vested by now, but was certainly helpful when Hertz stock exploded after the Tesla purchase announcement.

"The former Goldman Sachs executive, who was hired by the Estero-based car rental company in February 2022, seven months after it emerged from bankruptcy-court protection, made $3.4 million in salary and bonus. His $178 million in restricted stock is structured to vest through 2026, the report states. Scherr’s 2022 compensation only trails that of private investment banking company Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman ($253 million) and Google parent company Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai ($226 million)."

glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:

CrashDummy said:

He also had to pay a penalty for returning the car less than 85% full because he didn't want to repeat that process a second time on the drive back to NYC. 

That's interesting.  When I rented a Tesla from Hertz they told me there would be no charge (err, fee) as long as I was > 10% charge level.  Left at 80%, back 35%, no need to recharge for a weekend of light use.

 

I rented an EV from Hertz twice. Both times at Newark Airport. The first time they told me to return with >10% charge level. The second time they told me return with full charge.

As far as I was concerned, that was a deal killer for an airport return. 

In reply to SV reX :

I rented a car to pop up to Columbus for a meeting and thought it might be cool to try to rent a Tesla from Hertz for the trip.  Scouring the terms and conditions, I read that they wouldn't guarantee that it would have a charge when I picked it up and that it had to have the same level of charge upon its return. 

I didn't have the time in my schedule to worry about needing to charge the thing before I left, there was no place to charge at my destination, and I didn't have to time to screw around with recharging when I got back.  So Camry from Enterprise for the win.

I would have done okay if I picked it up full-charge and returned it empty and paid the "refuling fee", but not knowing if I'd need to charge before I left was the real killer.

Both of those anecdotes point to Hertz having trouble recharging the cars on-site. 

I think this is a Hertz issue, not an EV issue nor an EV rental issue.

I rent an EV now everywhere I go. It's been a Kia, a Tesla, a Volvo, etc. I've always enjoyed it. It's never been at Hertz.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

That is accurate. 
 

I spoke with the inventory manager and he said they were unable to charge them on site and had to send an employee with them off site to charge. 
 

Newark is one of the largest airports in the world.

Ridiculous.  Major fail Hertz.

In reply to tuna55 :

I agree. It isn't inherently an EV problem, or necessarily a rental problem.

However, if a rental company fails to install the infrastructure before including EVs in their fleet, they can expect it to become a major rental problem. 

I'll agree about 80% that it's more of a Hertz issue than an EV issue.  However, Hertz does not have a gas station on-site and yet if I wind up picking up a Camry that's only got an eighth of a tank, it's mildly inconvenient but doesn't make me late for my meeting that's 100 miles away.  If I'm looking at this from the perspective of Hertz, having to install an on-prem charging station that is sized appropriately for the number of EVs that my business plan says I should be renting is a cost that I don't have to pay for a fleet of gas or hybrid cars.   So these EVs are going to need to make me money in other ways to pay for the charging stations or people are going to want to rent an EV so badly that they don't care that the first 20-30 minutes or more of their rental experience will be spent finding a charger and waiting for the car to be charged and ready to go.

Also, if you consider that for the neighborhood locations one of the biggest lines of business will be insurance rentals, you're going to be sending EVs home for long-ish terms with customers that don't have a way to charge at home and aren't going to pay to install one for the couple of weeks that they're going to have the car.

I'm sure that in some use cases, the EV rental works out great.  In fact, I was all psyched about being able to rent one myself!  But I can absolutely see why it doesn't make sense in terms of a mass market for now.  And gutting the resale value of the asset doesn't help either.

In this case its 100% a Hertz issue.  They chose to create a fleet of EV rentals without the provisions necessary to create the experience their customers desire. 

tuna55 said:

I rent an EV now everywhere I go. It's been a Kia, a Tesla, a Volvo, etc. I've always enjoyed it. It's never been at Hertz.

What are other EV car rentals doing differently?

In reply to wae :

I think we can say, whether we're talking about a business or personal ownership, EVs biggest perk is charging where you park. It's cheaper, more convenient, and probably more reliable. If you have to rely on public charging, one of the biggest advantages of an EV disappears, and they can actually become less convenient than ICEs.

prodarwin said:

In this case its 100% a Hertz issue.  They chose to create a fleet of EV rentals without the provisions necessary to create the experience their customers desire. 

tuna55 said:

I rent an EV now everywhere I go. It's been a Kia, a Tesla, a Volvo, etc. I've always enjoyed it. It's never been at Hertz.

What are other EV car rentals doing differently?

I don't know. I've rented from Budget a lot, but I think there were others. Once it was only partially charged, but it was fine. Most EVs in this range have plenty of range for a week in whatever city with not much issue.

In reply to tuna55 :

Not if the policy is to return them 85% charged. 

In reply to tuna55 :

Keep in mind also that your use case is not typical. You own an EV. You've already been through the learning curve, and understand how easy it is to find charging stations, etc. 
 

I know you are an advocate, and that you know much more than me. I know it's not hard.  But the average rental customer does NOT know this stuff. Especially in an airport rental. 
 

I have no interest in trying to figure it out while I'm rushing to catch a plane. 
 

Total respect for your perspective and experience. You've made me ready to buy an EV.  But that doesn't make airport rentals a good business model. 

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

That would have been okay if the cars had enough downtime to charge at a Level 2 charger in the lot, but they may not have had enough chargers or downtime. I don't know what the turn time is for rentals, but if they're on the lot they're not making money. The big drop in resale - mostly driven by Tesla lowering MSRP - certainly didn't help from a profitability standpoint. 

It wasn't just Teslas, Hertz had/has quite a variety of EVs. But most of them were Teslas.

Changed for the issue for a rental company

MrJoshua said:

The0retical said:

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

Does this mean I should not be looking for used model 3 performances right now?

There's only one and it's trapped in Hawaii.

They have quite a selection of Bolt EUV's for sale, but the pricing doesn't make sense to me. They're basically all $20k to $21k for the LT trim. New LT trims start at $28k before the $7500 tax credit. Plus GM will partially pay to put L2 charging in at my house (partially because there's always something hidden there.) Why would I buy an ex-rental car at that price?

Not saying it makes it worth it-but the $4k tax credit on the used bolt would at least make it cheaper than the new one.

I forgot that the Inflation Reduction Act offers up to a $4k credit for used electrics on the list and under $25k. That makes a 2 year old $16k-$18k Bolt EUV seem like a deal since it breaks the $20k mental barrier.

Recently spent an afternoon with a friend who had a loaner Taycan. No charger was included, the local dealer didn't have a charge card for it (I guess the high speed charger on site needs some sort of authorization). We finally found a good charger with 4 miles of range left. 
 

if you can't charge at home these things really don't make sense. I would say work too but my friend works from home. 
 

gas stations aren't that bad after all. Especially in a rental situation. 

Keith Tanner said:

Both of those anecdotes point to Hertz having trouble recharging the cars on-site. 

Apparently many of their locations didn't have any charging equipment whatsoever. Somebody didn't think that through...

SV reX said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Keep in mind also that your use case is not typical. You own an EV. You've already been through the learning curve, and understand how easy it is to find charging stations, etc. 
 

I know you are an advocate, and that you know much more than me. I know it's not hard.  But the average rental customer does NOT know this stuff. Especially in an airport rental. 
 

I have no interest in trying to figure it out while I'm rushing to catch a plane. 
 

Total respect for your perspective and experience. You've made me ready to buy an EV.  But that doesn't make airport rentals a good business model. 

I hear this all the time, but you're assuming some things. I pretty much never destination charge at home. I never destination charge with a rental, unless a free charger is just sitting there wherever I am. I don't even bother getting the free pass from one of the facilities I visit to charge there. I just drive it.

Not on topic, but were there any jokes about Hertz buying electric cars?  

tuna55 said:

SV reX said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Keep in mind also that your use case is not typical. You own an EV. You've already been through the learning curve, and understand how easy it is to find charging stations, etc. 
 

I know you are an advocate, and that you know much more than me. I know it's not hard.  But the average rental customer does NOT know this stuff. Especially in an airport rental. 
 

I have no interest in trying to figure it out while I'm rushing to catch a plane. 
 

Total respect for your perspective and experience. You've made me ready to buy an EV.  But that doesn't make airport rentals a good business model. 

I hear this all the time, but you're assuming some things. I pretty much never destination charge at home. I never destination charge with a rental, unless a free charger is just sitting there wherever I am. I don't even bother getting the free pass from one of the facilities I visit to charge there. I just drive it.

So it sounds like the answer to my question before is:

A) you are picking up cars with a high state of charge
B) you dont have to charge before returning them

 

And additionally, your use case is in-town only.

prodarwin said:

tuna55 said:

SV reX said:

In reply to tuna55 :

Keep in mind also that your use case is not typical. You own an EV. You've already been through the learning curve, and understand how easy it is to find charging stations, etc. 
 

I know you are an advocate, and that you know much more than me. I know it's not hard.  But the average rental customer does NOT know this stuff. Especially in an airport rental. 
 

I have no interest in trying to figure it out while I'm rushing to catch a plane. 
 

Total respect for your perspective and experience. You've made me ready to buy an EV.  But that doesn't make airport rentals a good business model. 

I hear this all the time, but you're assuming some things. I pretty much never destination charge at home. I never destination charge with a rental, unless a free charger is just sitting there wherever I am. I don't even bother getting the free pass from one of the facilities I visit to charge there. I just drive it.

So it sounds like the answer to my question before is:

A) you are picking up cars with a high state of charge
B) you dont have to charge before returning them

 

And additionally, your use case is in-town only.

Kinda? I pick it up and drive with it all week around the area I am staying. I don't rent a car and drive a hundred miles, if that's what you're asking. In my experience, my use case is typical. The state of charge has varied upon pickup, once was annoyingly low, but still fine. Something like 64%. I never charge before handing the key back.

In reply to tuna55 :

I'm not sure if you missed what I said earlier...

Hertz in Newark airport was REQUIRING people to bring the car back with a full charge.  What you've been doing wouldn't fly.

SV reX said:

In reply to tuna55 :

I'm not sure if you missed what I said earlier...

Hertz in Newark airport was REQUIRING people to bring the car back with a full charge.  What you've been doing wouldn't fly.

I did miss that.

Wild guess that the counter person was wrong.

In reply to tuna55 :

The counter person, manager, and inventory manager all confirmed. I spent plenty of time debating with them. 
 

I don't think the counter person was wrong.