I disagree with... everything. Price cuts are always better for the consumers and the industry. It's like complaining the prices at the grocery store are too low. Nobody does that. For good reason.
I grew up on a Farm and the analogy of food prices being low is somewhat misleading. Food prices are still artificially low. If you factored in the subsidies that Farmers get, the food prices are actually higher than people realize. In other words, many of the items that you are paying for at the store are only part of the price you pay. Include the higher tax that you pay indirectly to the Farmers would add up to higher than "what you see" prices.
After two 1,000+ mile road trips in Model Ys from Hertz I completely disagree. Especially when Tesla enabled Hertz rentals to use the phone app. My trips were just as easy as they would have been in a gas car and considerably cheaper.
Yes, ALL of this will benefit when more of the public has experience with EVs and there's stronger overall literacy. I will also say there is very, very little support for newbie EV drivers from auto sales staff and car rental agents.
I will not dispute the "cheaper" part. EV drives are inherently cheaper than gas trips.
It did wipe value off their fleet though. Those units are factually less valuable today then they were prior to the Tesla price reduction.
Another one I'd happily give $15k for is a Polestar.
@mkhuffmanI grew up on a Farm and the analogy of food prices being low is somewhat misleading. Food prices are still artificially low. If you factored in the subsidies that Farmers get, the food prices are actually higher than people realize. In other words, many of the items that you are paying for at the store are only part of the price you pay. Include the higher tax that you pay indirectly to the Farmers would add up to higher than "what you see" prices.
Secondly, I don't know of anyone that purchases food and expects to sell them later at used prices? The EV's were handed a terrible blow from two fronts due to Tesla's new car price drops. Tesla is/was big enough to make the smaller EV companies fold and that practice has been used for years by the bigger box stores. Many times in the end, one enjoys the lower prices at first but then realizes (when it is too late) that it many times came with an unforeseen cost in the end.
Be careful what you wish for.
Actually, that SOMEBODY may be you.
Not according to Hertz themselves. They were getting tolerable uptake from customers. They cut back their investment because of A) the precipitous decline in the residual value of their fleet after the price cuts and B) higher-than-expected service/repair costs because a lot of the customers were rideshare drivers who were abusing the cars.
Yet another reason you would never want to trust a man like snake oil salesman named Elon Musk.
You've never run into lines at a highway service area on a busy holiday weekend?? You must have never driven on the NYS Thruway. I've done it on I-90 every summer for the last couple of decades and almost never pull right up to the pump.I will not dispute the "cheaper" part. EV drives are inherently cheaper than gas trips.
However, like I said above, they are more time consuming and require more planning than setting off on a road trip in a gas car. I am already dying on the hill so I will respectfully say - agree to disagree
1. Busy holidays - this is a corner case but I have experienced this myself - superchargers can get very busy and time is critical. There are almost NEVER lines at a gas station
2. Off-major highways / frigid weather - you will naturally wait longer to charge as your range will deplete quicker (fact) and you will need to charge above 80% to get to the next supercharging station. And this is kind of my point. When you are in an EV, it is always on your mind that you need to "make it to the next supercharger", this mindset is basically absent in a gas car. You are never "driving to your next gas station", you are driving to your destination. I will absolutely respect your point that it has gotten 1000 times better. The mindset IS changing, the infrastructure IS improving. But it is simply not where gasoline infrastructure is yet, not everywhere, and hence my stance to be a bit more biased toward gas cars when renting.
Oh no doubt Hertz's hands are not clean. I just can't believe they dealt with and trusted an obnoxious crazy man like Elon Musk.
Good insight and examples. And to your last point then, if and when you’re on a terrain where even gas stations are hard to find, you are claiming that driving an EV is more convenient on such stretches? I don’t think you are.
