Hertz dropping a lot of their EV fleet

[Otispunkmeyer]

This might be more US-centric and it also seems like it might be more Tesla-centric as well. But Hertz are unloading a large number of their EV fleet (over, 20,000 vehicles) and you should see the prices!

https://www.autoblog.com/2024/01/11/hertz-sells-el...

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportat...

I've seen some ad's that are cheaper still.... $17k for a Model3 SR+ with about 70,000 miles. The reason is supposedly due to much higher repair costs and waiting long time to get parts. But also that they weren't as popular as hoped. You could buy 3 of these ex-Hertz cars for the price of a new one!

At 17k these are billy bargains. I do wonder what state they might be in tho!

[Basil Brush]

They do seem to be struggling with them as you can rent a Polestar 2 for the same price as a Corsa.

[autumnsum]

I'd imagine rental cars need to be repaired a lot, and Tesla are notorious for long repair times.

I bet some of these have been off the road for months at a time.

I suspect someone at the top has just had enough of it and said to sell them and buy something else, I noticed they said they would use some of the money to buy more EVs but didn't mention Tesla...

[JD]

I never understood why EV hire cars were all of a sudden such a big thing, it seems to be the absolute worst use case for them.

The main advantages of EV use are low fuel costs, which the hire company doesn't get to capitalise on.

The main disadvantage of EV use, is being concerned about where to charge, which would put the end user off because if you are going on holiday for a week, learning about a new car is not something you want to have to worry about.

[AlexIT]

JD said:

I never understood why EV hire cars were all of a sudden such a big thing, it seems to be the absolute worst use case for them.

The main advantages of EV use are low fuel costs, which the hire company doesn't get to capitalise on.

The main disadvantage of EV use, is being concerned about where to charge, which would put the end user off because if you are going on holiday for a week, learning about a new car is not something you want to have to worry about.

Exactly this!

I am an EV owner, but as a rental car an EV seems to be the worst choice: you mostly drive in places you're not familiar with, with no idea about actual charging possibilities and probably fussing with different apps and paying methods.

An EV would not be my first rental choice, that's for sure.

[autumnsum]

AlexIT said:

Exactly this!

I am an EV owner, but as a rental car an EV seems to be the worst choice: you mostly drive in places you're not familiar with, with no idea about actual charging possibilities and probably fussing with different apps and paying methods.

An EV would not be my first rental choice, that's for sure.

If they rent the car out with a full battery, maybe the average rental does not go any further than 250 miles anyway. Maybe they also bought in to Tesla's claimed reliability.

Don't Hertz etc. make a lot of money from the slightest damage with crazy repair quotes? Perhaps actually doing the repairs was their downfall.

[Basil Brush]

It doesn't help them that, on top of the high depreciation, every time Tesla lower their retail prices Hertz get hit with an impairment charge on all their Tesla fleet.

[williamp]

Do you have to given them back with a full charge??

If not they wont be able to quickly turnaround the cars

[sherbertdip]

I'm actually surprised they had them, as a rental vehicle petrol or diesel would be my choice anyway.

[AlexIT]

williamp said:

Do you have to given them back with a full charge??

If not they wont be able to quickly turnaround the cars

I checked with Europcar and no, they state that you can hand it back with any charge level, except Sweden where it must be above 80%.

[durbster]

autumnsum said:

AlexIT said:

Exactly this!

I am an EV owner, but as a rental car an EV seems to be the worst choice: you mostly drive in places you're not familiar with, with no idea about actual charging possibilities and probably fussing with different apps and paying methods.

An EV would not be my first rental choice, that's for sure.

If they rent the car out with a full battery, maybe the average rental does not go any further than 250 miles anyway.

It's not hard to cover 250 miles in the US so I would have thought the average trip for a rental is far higher. When I rented a car there we did about 1,500 miles.

Doesn't the supercharger network takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the equation though, where you can just tell the car where you're going and it'll tell you where to charge?

[stumpage]

AlexIT said:

I checked with Europcar and no, they state that you can hand it back with any charge level, except Sweden where it must be above 80%.

You are correct you can hand it back without a full charge but you still get stung for the recharge/ refill like you would a petrol/ diesel car. Also it's not fun looking around for a charger that is a) working b) available when you have a flight to catch (Been there, done it, won't do it again in a hurry)

[AlexIT]

stumpage said:

AlexIT said:

I checked with Europcar and no, they state that you can hand it back with any charge level, except Sweden where it must be above 80%.

You are correct you can hand it back without a full charge but you still get stung for the recharge/ refill like you would a petrol/ diesel car. Also it's not fun looking around for a charger that is a) working b) available when you have a flight to catch (Been there, done it, won't do it again in a hurry)

Ah, ok. I did not catch that.
Even worse then, finding a fast charger near an airport is no easy task.

[Tophatron]

I rented Teslas via Hertz multiple times in California and Texas last year. In general the experience was great, much cheaper to run than petrol cars (especially in CA) and there are loads of Superchargers so it was never an issue to charge. The cost of charging was passed on when you returned the car, with no extra loading applied by Hertz. You can also now add rented Teslas to your Tesla app, so I was able to precondition etc.

My only real concern was the state of the cars - in particular Texas where they gave me a Model 3 SR with over 70k miles and covered in dents, scratches and kerbing. Ironically it drove perfectly well, which actually gave me some confidence that Teslas are durable! It looks like the vehicles getting sold are the ones like this at the end of their rental life.

[Zero Fuchs]

Sounds like a potential case of poor implementation.

I bought an EV off the back of hiring one from the EV Experience Centre in Milton Keynes. But they were super helpful and gave me a Polar card to use and advice on zapmap etc.

I'm not sure how they managed the hiring process but we're doomed if they just gave people keys and sent them off.

[Muzzer79]

Tophatron said:

My only real concern was the state of the cars - in particular Texas where they gave me a Model 3 SR with over 70k miles and covered in dents, scratches and kerbing. Ironically it drove perfectly well

In my experience, this kind of condition is the case for every hire car I've ever rented in the USA, no matter if it's ICE or not!

[off_again]

Tophatron said:

I rented Teslas via Hertz multiple times in California and Texas last year. In general the experience was great, much cheaper to run than petrol cars (especially in CA) and there are loads of Superchargers so it was never an issue to charge. The cost of charging was passed on when you returned the car, with no extra loading applied by Hertz. You can also now add rented Teslas to your Tesla app, so I was able to precondition etc.

My only real concern was the state of the cars - in particular Texas where they gave me a Model 3 SR with over 70k miles and covered in dents, scratches and kerbing. Ironically it drove perfectly well, which actually gave me some confidence that Teslas are durable! It looks like the vehicles getting sold are the ones like this at the end of their rental life.

The way that Tesla's can be rented was shaky at first, but its moved on a lot and now the experience is pretty seamless. I am glad that you have had a good experience with them - and yes, superchargers are all over the place here, so its not a bad process to keep driving.

And yes, Tesla's like the Model 3 do hold up well to abuse. The problem is the repair and reconditioning costs. Getting the parts is a nightmare, never mind actually getting them fitted! Being the US, there is no strict requirement to force you to go to a Tesla service center or body repair shop, its there and stepping outside of this is a major risk. Its great that the cars hold up well, but its a major issue getting them back to looking decent again.

[dvs_dave]

durbster said:

It's not hard to cover 250 miles in the US so I would have thought the average trip for a rental is far higher. When I rented a car there we did about 1,500 miles.

Doesn't the supercharger network takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the equation though, where you can just tell the car where you're going and it'll tell you where to charge?

Most rentals in the US are by business travelers in and out of an airport for a day or two around the local city, and not doing anywhere near 250 miles. Not road tripping holiday makers.

EV’s are good for that use case, but not if the renter isnt familiar with how to run an EV. And in my experience, the rates were not at all compelling over the ICE equivalent, falling well outside of most corporate travel expense limits which is very short sighted, so why bother?

[CoreyDog]

Basil Brush said:

They do seem to be struggling with them as you can rent a Polestar 2 for the same price as a Corsa.

I noticed this a few weeks ago when was getting hire car quotes from Glasgow Airport, the two cheapest options were a Polestar or Fiat 500.

Since we were heading North though, Polestar didn’t seem like a very sensible option.

[Sheepshanks]

Otispunkmeyer said:

This might be more US-centric and it also seems like it might be more Tesla-centric as well. But Hertz are unloading a large number of their EV fleet (over, 20,000 vehicles) and you should see the prices!

https://www.autoblog.com/2024/01/11/hertz-sells-el...

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportat...

I've seen some ad's that are cheaper still.... $17k for a Model3 SR+ with about 70,000 miles. The reason is supposedly due to much higher repair costs and waiting long time to get parts. But also that they weren't as popular as hoped. You could buy 3 of these ex-Hertz cars for the price of a new one!

At 17k these are billy bargains. I do wonder what state they might be in tho!

Re the prices, with subsidies (some based on income), no VAT (lower sales tax) etc they’re pretty cheap over there new - some people in California can get a M3 new for $20K. So the used ones have to be priced against that.