The PERILS of Renting an EV 

£53 for to charge it up themselves is an absolute extortion

That's ridiculous. You rent a car to go places and forget about it. The rental car should not become the central focus of your trip.

Be careful with Hertz, and not just with EV rental. We received an economy car in Budapest that had scratches, one cigarette burn on the seat. When I asked about documenting these flaws the rental agent told me that all these blemishes are recorded in the system and I do not need to worry about it. My wife returned the card very early in the morning before the rental agency opened for business. To our surprise we received a bill for $350 for damages caused. It did not help to complain to Hertz in Budapest or here in the US. Very disappointing and I will be sharing my story warning other people for the rest of my life.

Sitting in a $65K car and being cold because you can’t afford to turn on the heat is a uniquely EV experience.

You are so British, I thought the whole USA scenario was some sort of roleplay. Even the shelves behind you look like BnQ units I had in my house in Ireland. I actually dug into your channel details to check location. Definitely my surprise of the year, that you're base in the US! Anyways Love the videos (in Terms of merit) and your voice. Very soothing after a stressful day. Greetings from Poland.

I found the same issues in UK with a rented EV that I had in/around the west London area. As an Englishman living overseas, when I returned to UK - I tried a Polestar too. Quite liked the car but issues I found included - some charge points (when you can find them) required you to download their app to use......only the app is only available to a UK registered phone.....not a foreign registered one like mine (even with data !) - so I could not download the app to use their charge network. Another network I found would not accept my HSBC foreign credit card to be used.....so I moved on from there too. Finally found charging at a regular gas station that had a single charge point but BIG warning signs saying you will be fined if you stay there more than an hour (!). My car needed at least 2hrs to charge to 80% - meaning I had to leave there before the hour and before the car was charged to where I needed it for my journey. On that trip I did around 300miles total. Needless to say on a recent return trip to UK, I rented a regular petrol car and had no issues at all covering the 1200miles, filling up whenever needed!

Hertz policy is forcing many users to charge the cars to a high level with EVERY rental. Bad idea.

Not only did Hertz announce back in January that it was selling off 20K Tesla's from it's fleet, but now the rental giant is also abandoning plans to buy 60K Polestar EV's.

Ugh that’s a harsh experience. I too am a Brit living in the US and have been driving EVs since 2017. We recently rented an EV from Europcar for a trip in Northern Italy. The only positive thing about the experience was that they didn’t care what charge level it was at when returned. The “will charger actually work when we get to it” plus the awfulness of charging apps made for a stressful few days. Switched to a gas car for the second road portion of the trip.. one tank of gas and no stress. Still a ways to go…

You’re speaking out of my mind here. I was on a business trip in Berlin recently, I booked a small combustion engine car with unlimited miles at Europcar. When picking it up at the BER airport, I was asked if I’d go farther than 250 miles. I was surprised by that limit but it was explained with offering a larger EV that I don’t (!) have to recharge when returning. I wasn’t so sure because I was also visiting friends in the evening on this three day trip. In the end, I only traveled 60 miles, but it was mid January in Berlin. I didn’t know where I could charge and how much the mileage of the given EV would drop using heat, heated seats and so on. I passed and got an Opel Corsa with an automatic gearbox (so was basically a sickness on wheels) but at least I knew I’d get to my destination.

Ah, the car rental business. Deception and coercion is common across the industry. I have been financially abused at Heathrow airport so many times by these crooks, usually when I'm at my most vulnerable - tired, irritable, just want to get to my destination. One time I was charged a hefty amount for insurance even though they knew 100% that my credit card covered me. This was after I told them that I was visiting my dying mother for the last time, and after the salesperson went back with my card to 'ask the manager'. Of course, ultimately it's buyer beware, but these guys have no soul. In my experience, lower than lawyers and used car salesman. Small, independent car rental guys tend to be much, much better.

As everyone knows, the fastest car in the world is a hire car 😂

Found myself in a similar circumstance recently. My wife's knee injury from a MVA last February began troubling her and we decided to rent a vehicle while on vacation. I'm not sure if the rental agency had EV's in their fleet but for ease of use and peace of mind I rented a hybrid vehicle. No fuss, no muss. Enjoy watching your videos!

I work for Enterprise in the UK and we also rarely have EV’s now. When I first started we had loads of them and we’ve since scaled back only and only certain branches have them in stock. Also we differ for charging as we don’t charge customers for discrepancies in charge, we just ask them to return on enough charge for us to take it to a charger, definitely a lot less tight 😊

WTF have to return with 80% battery? What if there's no other charging stations nearby. Then you have to pay for the excessive fee which is almost cost like a penalty. Let alone "refueling" a BEV is much more easier than refueling a gasoline car. I usually see >50% battery is "no need to charge".

The inconvenience of renting an EV is reflected in their plumbing rental prices from two years ago...which simply shows a broader picture towards the impractical nature (for most) of owning an EV in the first place. Thanks for the video!

Toyota has the best foresight in not fully plunging itself into the EV circus.

aren't Volvo reducing involvement in Polestar and handing control to Geeley because the return on investment just isn't there?

Rented them a couple times in Charlotte and Norfolk. Had absolutely no issues. Easily found a supercharger when needed. As for only charging to 80 percent for long battery life maybe they should just lie and have the 100 percent readout kick in at 80 percent. Maybe have a separate unlock code to access the extra range in the cases where you really need it rather than all the time.

I rented a Tesla Model Y in the South of France last October to try one with Europcar.Hated the ride, too firm. But, I was told, and did, that I could return the car with any level of charge. I received no additional charges for returning the car with quite a low amount of battery left.

The head rests are a standard volvo safety feature to prevent whiplash. The newer ones are a bit more protruding, I find it quite uncomfortable on very long drives in my XC40. However, my 940 also has similar head rests, but it has a soft cushion on it and it doesnt protrude forward as much. The key fob looks similar to the standard Volvo offering, but somehow it looks like a cheaper version!

So basically the whole problem about EV renting is not with EV itself but rather with Hertz rental policy that is caused by corporate greed and cost cutting. By the way last time when I rented ICE car and had to fill it up before my fuel consumption was twice higher than car supposedly was using. That’s because fuel indicator needle doesn’t move down for some time about first 60 miles and Hertz is filing them up only until needle move up not to real full.

2:47 - I did some research, and I was absolutely horrified to discover how much electricity costs in Britain. It's like a 3rd world country, with domestic electrons costing more than double the standard rate in New Zealand homes. Then I was even more horrified to discover that fast-charging rates are up to 8 time the NZ average - and this means that EVs charged at public fast chargers in the UK cost more to run than even a thirsty petrol car. This on top of the pathetic and woefully insufficient charging stations (with many chargers not working) in the UK makes buying an EV there little more than personal and financial suicide. A Taycan losing 30,000+ pounds a year in resale "value" is simply insane. Here in NZ, fast chargers are often free (yes - free) and there are no waits to use them. And normal charging is usually at about 70 cents/kwh (More than double the domestic rate) - that's 34 pence, by the way. On top of this, we don't have freezing winters, and so battery performance is optimal at all times of the year.

You should have billed them for the 6% you were over on the charge on return.

We rented a car in iceland, little petrol suzuki, was spot on. Filled it up and dropped it off when we were done. No range anxiety, studded tyres, heater. It was ideal. We'd of never of even been able to do half what we did with an EV in the time we had, i never remember seeing a charger to be honest. EVs have a place, maybe in 30 more years time. Great video :D

The idea to return an rental EV with 80 SOC is plain bonkers. Old school thinking.

exactly.. LONG LIVE the reliable internal combustion engine!!!!

If you think range anxiety on EVs is bad, I used to run a Nissan Patrol which ran 100% LPG. If the tank on that thing read as 25% you knew you were running on evaporated gas only, and finding filling stations was a nightmare. Add to that LPG give only about 50% of the range of petrol and it makes a very interesting experience. I now run an EV with 480km range, and I have had no problems with it all (after 2 years).

Thank you for sharing this story.

This is like going back to the days of horse-drawn transport, where you could safely (ie safe in the knowledge that any horse, regardless of its condition, could comfortably manage this distance) travel a certain distance at a modest and steady speed. Then, when the horses became tired you had to find a nearby place of rest and wait for them to recuperate, be it for a couple of hours or even overnight, before continuing your journey. Unless we have a societal shift away from our culture of impulsion combined with schedules and deadlines, I don’t see how the EV model of somewhat random journey times and speculative travel planning will ever fit for anything beyond short journeys.

Ah, I spotted your error. You went to the UK. The Netherlands has 3 times more DC chargers per km2 and a whopping 17 times more public chargers per km2. Give it a few more years and the UK will hopefully catch up.

It's significant that the video's focus is on the hassles of living (briefly) with an EV. Range, cost, charging, timing... All quite stressful. I know the video was made specifically to cover these issues, but... that's kinda the point, isn't it: renting a car shouldn't NEED a video. When you hire an ICE vehicle, the story tends to be about the roads, the traffic, the scenery, the parking, the weather, the hotels, the food, the car's boot space (enough room for luggage?), the people you meet and, at the very end, the importance of having taken numerous close-up photographs when you collected the car so that you can't be charged extra for damage caused by its previous user. Maybe other people have a happier time with their hired electric vehicles, but in this case the EV experience seems to be all about the car, not what it was rented for.🤔

In June of 2019, I rented a Tesla Model 3 for 4 days. I was so impressed and delighted by that experience, that I ordered one the next day. The rental wasn't cheap...but the local company I rented for charged me NOTHING for returning the car with a quite depleted battery. The car was immediately hooked-up to a level 2 charger.... and the charge would have cost them a few (single-digit) bucks. Not including charging the battery in the price is a major marketing error of Hertz!

My experience of hertz EV hire was excellent. I returned the car with around 75 percent charge and was charged per kilowatt, came out at around 14 british pounds. This was hertz Bristol airport xmas 2023.

Charging cars in a multi storey car park could be an insurance issue as EV fires have freaked out the insurance industry

In Australia both Sixt and Hertz have bailed out of EV's - Hertz had a huge multi year purchasing contract with Tesla which they terminated. Both companies cited these reasons: Customers didn't want EV's Depreciation was too high Repair costs were too high

Fun video!! next time bring a tow rope along, you may find a friendly lorry driver to pull you 40 miles:))

Renting a normal car at Hertz, especially in the US, is so easy and nice, almost the favourite part of any business trip. Renting an EV however...only did it once, not by choice, and absolutely hated everything about it. It was a rainy night and coming out of the garage I realized I don't know how to operate the wipers on a Model 3, and also unlike on any other modern cars, raindrops just congregate on the mirrors of that Tesla. Most uncomfortable drive ever. On the other hand, did rent a C4e in Brüssels once for 2 days, and that was just a delight! Knew I didn't need to drive enough to worry about charging, and in a city that was the perfect vehicle. No stress at all.

I don't know what puts me off an EV the most, the horrendous impracticality of trying to charge the damn things, or the putrid vile spewing from the EVangelists in the comments section. Every single time somebody reports the true reality of living with an EV, the trolls bombard them with insults and abuse. It's so utterly childish. The more I learn about life with an EV, the less I want to get involved with them. I'm sticking with petrol and diesel cars. I don't want anything to do with battery operated vehicles.

It seems that Herz just cancelled it's latest Polestar order, due to high maintenance cost and low residual value.

Still, could have been worse…. The previous driver could have damaged the battery pack and it could have gone bang 🔥 during your hire period

On the Nissan Leaf battery... I believe it is an exeptional case being one of the very first mass-produced EVs and therefore has poor battery management (one of the only cars not to have battery cooling). It really is an outlier and shouldn't be compared to other EVs.

Sounds an absolute nightmare for an 80 year old like me .. I'll stick with my diesel tiguan thank you. We are not ready for this yet.

I think EVs have some way to go yet, it’s crazy having to about freeze to death while driving, I’m surprised they haven’t come up with heat dissipation from the batteries to heat the cabin , I believe the batteries get quite hot when in use .

I was offered an EV the last time I was in the UK. I explained I would be in Wales and the offer changed to a small diesel SUV. Living in Hong Kong, I don’t drive much anyway and dealing with charging complications is not something I want to on my way to dropping a rental.

So if you want to keep the battery healthy, the actual range is not 280 miles, it's 168 miles. I'm reminded of the golf carts people use to commute around their neighborhood.

Had never considered the charging delay before returning the rental EV to the airport. An extra stress you just don't need when catching flight.

My huge beef with EVs is there are no basic, economy EVs at all. They are all luxury vehicles loaded to the roof with options I don't need or want or can access. They add up to cost while making car unusable if anything breaks down. Also controls are very counter intuitive. I tried test driving a Tesla and couldn't do it safely.

Thanks so much for this. The EVangelists slam Geoff buys Cars and the MacMaster, but this is a review by someone showing real world experience. The conclusion is the same. For now, in the real world, EV’s are NOT the future…

This sounds like they simply put on blinkers and applied a similar policy to that of fuel cars when drawing up plans for EVs... surely it would make more sense to just install a couple of fast chargers in their rental locations to top up returns in a few minutes - maybe give you a modest notional rebate (a few pounds) if you return it more than 80% full to encourage you to do that but not punish you if you don't...

I was curious so I hired an EV van for a month. I cannot charge at home anyway so public charging would be my only choice. Once loaded for a days work I only got 50 miles per charge! A charge took 2 hours. Public charging is dire, sparse and I cannot pay with cash. Then theres the charge queues. 4+ hours wasted waiting for 3 people. My closest charge point is 5 miles away, the next is a further 10 miles away. So bundle the time to drive out of the way to a charger, any time in the queue and the time to charge the thing. On a good day, thats 3 hours gone. Public charging is also furiously expensive, more expensive per mile than diesel. Gave the thing back after 2 weeks. It was expensive to run, too short ranged, too long and a pain to recharge... As a result I had to cancel appointments, loosing customer faith and money. The EV future is no future to look forward to. Added note. My local plumber calls his eTransit his £50,000 mistake for the same reasons. He cant sell the van (no one wants it) so he's back to using his car for work because its a better vehicle for the job.

So by definition any ex rental EV will have a compromised battery as 80% is the minimum allowable charge level to avoid penalty . Who’s taking a punt on all those EVs Hertz are selling off ?

To cover the cost of installing more charging stations. Charging up an EV will cost the same or more, as gas powered car. Then the cost of insurance is already high. EV drivers are on their own if there’s power outage or other major national mishap. Worst might be getting ready for work and finding car is not charged because night time power outage. Then taking a risk driving and hopping there’s enough juice…

This is a bit exaggerated imho. Charging to 100% is not recommended every time (and it isn't needed all the time) but it is possible of course. The battery management system (BMS) will prevent overcharging, 100% shown on the display will be a little bit less than 100% in reality to prevent excessive wear. Nowadays, batteries using LFP chemistry are used more frequently and with those is is even recommended to charge to 100% every time. Better still, almost every ev has a charge timer function. That should allow you to set departure time and preferred state of charge when leaving, the car will then make sure it'll be at 100% only shortly before departure. Bjørn Nyland here on RU-vid has well documented degradation tests and range tests for all sorts of ev's, well worth it to watch those. Compare older ev's to newer ones. There's really still a lot of progress being made by manufacturers. Heated seat does not use a lot of energy, using that does not affect range that much. Heated steering wheel could have been available too. These allow the 'regular heating' to be on a lower temperature. If the rental company bought the heat pump option on the car, the range wouldn't be affected as much as when using the cheap resistive heating. Lastly, a charge stop at a fast charger doesn't take that long. Looked up the Polestar 2, it has 150kW fast charging and 10-80% takes half an hour. Nevertheless, the rental company shouldn't charge you that much when returning the car with less than 80%. That's ridiculous. And they should have explained how to pay at the chargers.

I did this. I rented a Polestar 2 from Hertz in the USA. I drove it a little over 400 miles in a day, and I explicitly avoiding hypermiling. It was to validate to myself that I'd like a Polestar 2 in my life. The 80% SoC policy definitely adds complexity to the experience. I had to sit on an overcrowded charger with people waiting while I ran the car all the way up to 90% so I could be assured of reaching the rental car stand with 80%. In retrospect, I should have paid Hertz their sub 80% SoC fee. They have an extra charge for returning under 10% SoC.

Nice range anxiety video!

If the EV was a viable solution. The government wouldnt need legislation to force people into buying them. Banning the sale of the ICE is forcing people into EV. The horse n cart was never banned to promote the use of the car, The car simply became a better more convenient option.

Coming to the UK from Australia tomorrow. Daily a Model 3 LR here and absolutely love it. Rented a 5 Series or equivalent in UK because like Australia i could not be bothered with the Faff of finding chargers in the UK when on Holidays. From the UK we are off on a road trip around Norway, there i have rented an EV l, hopefully a Tesla (less faff) as there infrastructure is much better and i want to see how EVs work in a country with good infrastructure. Also the return policy is different there, it's like for like as far as percentage goes, not sure on the fee if not, but I won't be stressing over it.

I’m surprised you even used Hertz. Overall an insightful review. Thanks.

I suspect every rental EV is charged to 100% before being returned.... Sitting in a £60k+ vehicle in the cold is not exactly a luxury experience

Last time I rented an electric car, it was *not* on Hertz, and I could leave it at 0% as long as I made it to the car rental company. I had missed that point, so I guess I charged it to 80%. Next time I'll check the terms and conditions first. 😀

I see the problem being Hertz, and not the car. Other EV rental companies allow the car to be returned at any SOC, where Hertz makes it difficult by requiring the renter to return it charged up to a high SOC. WHY Hertz? When I rent a hotel room, I’m not expected to wash the bed sheets and make the bed. Charging and cleaning the car is not the job for the renter. EV or not, I will never rent from Hertz based on many other issues with their policies and practices. It’s like they didn’t think this through from the start. They have electricity at their facilities. Why burden the customers? Oh. Because they’re Hertz, that’s right.

Very fair assessment. As was said, if you drive an EV you have to do more planning; that might be ok if you own an EV but a nuisance for a week’s hire. I think that a lot of people are missing the point of the high cost of returning the car at less than 80% charge; it is to make you do it, same as the high cost if you return an ICE car without a full tank. There is not enough profit in car hire to have multiple chargers.

Forget all that EV dancing around. I'll rent an ICE car and drive carefree, knowing that there's a gas station at every brown interstate sign, spend 10 minutes filling up, and return it with the gas gauge on "F".

You're complaining about an EV beeping because there's a heavy bag on the passenger seat? That isn't an EV issue! No point discussing 10 year old Nissan Leaf's, they aren't representative of a modern 2 or 3 year old EV just the same as running an Austin Metro on unleaded fuel, things have changed and there's a reason why they have failed......

This is a great recap. I was just recently on a trip and had a chance to rent an EV. I turned it down after seeing your experience. The “return 80% charged” condition was my biggest concern. Thanks for saving me a potential headache!

Must be a Uk thing or maybe just hertz 🤔 I’ve recently rented a VW ID3 from europcar in Italy and later in the year I rented a fiat 500e from cicar in Lanzarote Spain and on both occasions they allowed me to deliver the vehicles with low state of charge without charging me extra and charging in general on both my stays where generally easygoing and finding charging points no problem at all. Maybe I was lucky 😅or maybe it’s just my charming smile 😊

Oh Christ. Reading glasses. I feel your pain. I never can find the fuckers.

You would be better off returning the car at or around 10% charge left, and pay the £53….because to fast charge it back to over 80% will cost you almost that, and sometimes more these days, in the U.K. , and it saves you having to factor in that last charge before returning the car, and saves time….👍😜👌🇮🇲

So encouraged that there are people flying into this country and saving the planet by renting E.V.s for duration of their visit. We've got this!

Why wouldn't an ICE car last 20 years? An ICE car can easily last 20 years. I daily drive a 23 year old Mondeo (original engine, gearbox and clutch) and I can always drive it until it's nearly empty. It only recently let me down once in the 15 years that I've owned it, when the still original ignition coil died. People only replace a car because they want something new and we scrap them because nobody wants to buy and repair the old car. The cars themselves can last very long with minimal maintenance.

rented EVs 2 times in 🇨🇭 and liked the convenience of NOT having to top up before returning

The 80% charge is new, in the US you needed only 10% but may be this changed?

I'd rather buy/lease one, rather than rent but it depends on what the government does with electric cars in the years to come.

If you rent any car you could be put in jail for a while if they accidentally report it stolen. It used to be just Hertz but now others are doing it.

The elephant in the room is company car tax. Or BIK. I was paying £7,222 per year in Income Tax on my company car. It was fabulous. A Mercedes Benz 350d Estate. I now pay £498 per year by driving a Tesla Model Y dual motor Long Range. You cannot really compare the two cars as the big Benz wins in every conceivable way except acceleration. But, over a 4-year business lease, the Tesla saves me nearly £30,000 in tax payments. I don't know about you, but £30,000 is a lot of money. Two holidays in Barbados with the family anyone? EVs will always find favour in the fleet market (which accounts for 63% of all new car sales). It doesn't matter how flawed they are since the tax savings are huge.

I have a Volvo. If I have a laptop in my case on the seat it's enough weight to set off the sensor, but if I don't it won't set it off. Oftentimes I'll scooch it to the floor. The key fob should be keyless, so you don't really need to push the buttons. Just touch the handle with the fob in your pocket. I think it's all black because it looks like the pole star you got is a special all black model. The ones I get are Chrome on the side within different colors in the body

Great video. Thank you!

ICEs will always be more practical!

I am on my 3rd EV ownership over the last 10 years, I know all about charging and apps and which chargers to trust etc, and I love them, and mainly charge from home. Doing long road trips requires planning, which I actually quite enjoy. But no way would I rent one, they are certainly not a good idea in a strange country, like you I want a small manual, yes I can still drive manual, but for a short term rent I can manage on a slow noisy basic manual ICE car. Bad business model by Hertz, they should have paid me a consultancy fee, and as for returning the car with a substantially charged battery,what a joke.

To me this is more evidence of how ridiculous EVs are in general. Hybrids are a different matter, or small petrol models such as ours. The key fob is far better too!

Great video. Does make you wonder who in Hertz thought this through and how much they had drunk. Gets even worse when you look at electric vans.

The Polestar provides you with a pretty accurate target SOC in its satnav. You can easily use it to adjust speed, heating and so on. And with 86% SOC at thr airport at least seat warmers wouldn't have been a problem at all That being said, here in Germany Sixt and Europcar offer as standard to bring back the EV with any SOC. They simply recharge it at the station. Very convenient, especially for those being new to EVs.

How can you not know that putting something heavy on the pessenger seat would set off the seatbelt warning light? Really?

Well, I rented a Tesla Model 3 in France last year and it went great. I was able to change at Tesla Superchargers for around €20 and found chargers just about anywhere, even in tiny little villages. While some charging networks had prices around the 0.60€ per kwh I was able to easily find much cheaper places to charge such as the IECharge network with its 0.30€ per kWh and 300 kW chargers). A year on, I now drive an electric car, although not a Tesla, and life is great. There are chargers everywhere, although not all are fast chargers, and if you look at little, you can find cheap ones... And I just checked, I have around 40 chargers in a 2 miles radius of where I live)

That is an idiotic policy on Hertz's part because charging from 80% and up is the slowest to charge. So if you have to return it at 80% you have to stay waiting at a charger whilst it charges from 80% to 90% or whatever is necessary to get you back to Hertz. It still hasn't put me off renting a EV. I had to rent a car last time I was abroad and at Enterprise I was told that they didn't have one after all. I hated the petrol Opel.

4:43 In what way is that mysterious? It shows the driver wearing a seatbelt, and the supposed "passenger" that wasn't "wearing" one.

I have rented small electric cars from ÖBB rail and drive a couple of times. They are based at the parking garage next to the railway station which has charging stations specifically for these rental cars. They are unlocked using my rail and drive card and a charging card is inside. Once I made the mistake of taking the charging card with me, then I received a phone call and had to pay an extra fee ... So it is extra important to make sure all the cards are where they belong (there's also an extra card to get in and out of the parking garage). That said, for my requirements small electric cars are usually the best choice and I love using the regenerative brake on the small mountain roads around here! If Hertz charges outrageous fees for recharging if you return the car not fully loaded, they shouldn't be surprised nobody wants to rent their EVs. Rather than reducing the number it would be better to adjust the tariff to make it more attractive.

Could you have heated the car up while it was charging, so it’s warmed up with a full battery before you set off? Also, heated seats are not heavy on the battery, so maybe you could have got away with using them. I find it crazy that there is an all or nothing £53 charge for returning the car below 80%. I think a fairer idea would be increments of 10% and a £10 fee for each increment below 80% left in the battery.

No way in Hell am I buying a used car with a range of less than 100 miles (and dropping).

Goodness no, never. I rent on 5 day trips 7-8 times a year, and often one or two of those days will see me put on 400 miles or more depending how far I radiate out beyond my abnb city (I'll do stuff like Tulsa from OKC, Naples from Miami, etc., and those are middle distance - I've done Dallas to Houston roundtrip in a day). Electric would come with all sort of hassles and dramatically reduce the ability to get in and go. The return sounds like a nightmare, trying to build in yet another level of time uncertanty. Yech. I will say that back when Hertz had a lot of Fusion Hybrids, I'd often take one of those. Slow and made a lot of protest at speeds well in excess of posted, but they got good mileage - so Hybrid yes, full electric, no.

I rented a Polestar in Seattle a couple of years ago. They have good EV support there, and it saved us money on gas. I could see how it could be a bad deal in a place that I don’t know. The car was fast but it did feel cheap inside and it didn’t have great visibility. I know the camera compensates some but I still need to look out the back.

Speaking as someone who couldn't organise a p*** up in a brewery, I'd have no chance with a hired EV! Cheers!

To much hassle. I'm sticking to my 2003 Toyota Avensis, on the way to 400.000 km. Engine as good as new. Just fill it up and go.

The re-charge fob is a little shell branded tag on the main car key fob, at least with Hertz UK Polestars. I've rented a few of these but not used the fob itself to understand how it works

If you own or have owned an EV in the UK you’ll know the infrastructure is getting better slowly, it’s this intrim time of it getting better that’s the issue. The problem is Hertz! Or other car rental places, 53 quid is ridiculous! If you’re gonna hire a car, get a combustion engine, it’s a bit of a silly idea for the moment.

Seeing people sitting in their Tesla's at charging stations outside shopping centres puts me off EVs. Clearly those miserable people have better places to spend their time.

These things are a pointless pain-in-the-arse. I rented one in Madrid. It was super-stressful and I ended up walking the last few km when the thing died completely.

Interesting, thank you! Shows the problems of EVs quite well. Unfortunately my wife is being sort of forced to get an EV by EU and local laws and the company car policy. As well as by Volvo who dont make any 4WD (SUVs) with combustion engines anymore! By the way we have 2 Volvos (XC40 and XC60) so I have driven exactly that Polestar for 2 days when mine was at the garage. I dont like it. Eg., seating position uncomfortable, cant compare the build quality to a Volvo.

So, it costs a bit more to rent an EV, but you get more anxiety and stress in return 😅. I've recently had a plug-in hybrid RAV4 as a rent car and it also doesn't seem to have any positives. The battery was drained from the start and I didn't want to search for some charger and spend time and money to charge it, because I needed to put petrol in it anyway... So, it was basically a petrol RAV4 with an additional useless weight. It didn't have very good fuel consumption (around 8 l/100 km without pushing it at all) and it felt heavy and rubbery in turns. And I imagine the battery is almost empty for the majority of the car's lifetime, because charging it is simply an additional headache. Not very ecological.