Hertz "Horror Show"

[DennisD]

Thought this was rather interesting.............

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/business/hertz-ceo-departure-ev/index.html

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[kltye]

Why they didn't build even the most rudimentary L2 charging stations in their locations boggles the mind. A whole bunch of 48A L2 chargers would have been plenty, even if they relaxed the "refueling" rules to bring it back with ~40% SoC or whatever.

 

[VaporTrails]

The lack of thinking this through versus jumping on the new hotness is shocking. I also note other problems such as falsely arresting customers for vehicle theft. It is surprising that Tesla didn’t bake L2 NACS charging stations into the deal. I love the idea that EVs could make good rental cars 5 years from now when lots of folks have experience and the charging infrastructure is there.

Many CEO’s were riding the EV wave to drive investor value…

 

[MBCook]

It was a good idea. But then push was just too big and too fast.

They weren’t ready. Their customers weren’t ready. But they went in whole hog.

The last time I got a rental from Hertz was when my Mach E was in the dealer this winter (dealer provided rental). I asked the manager at Hertz, who happened to be the guy I was dealing with, if normal people wanted to electric cars. He said they won’t touch them with a 10 foot pole.

Electric car owners like them for rentals. Some people are curious and willing. Most people just don’t want the hassle of something they’re not familiar with and I can’t blame them one bit.

And while Teslas Model 3s are nice for the charging network, the fact that they’re so different from “normal cars” probably didn’t help for a lot of people. At least the Bolt I got didn’t require any learning curve (as someone used to charging).

 

[Thunderbuck]

It was a good idea. But then push was just too big and too fast.

They weren’t ready. Their customers weren’t ready. But they went in whole hog.

The last time I got a rental from Hertz was when my Mach E was in the dealer this winter (dealer provided rental). I asked the manager at Hertz, who happened to be the guy I was dealing with, if normal people wanted to electric cars. He said they won’t touch them with a 10 foot pole.

Electric car owners like them for rentals. Some people are curious and willing. Most people just don’t want the hassle of something they’re not familiar with and I can’t blame them one bit.

And while Teslas Model 3s are nice for the charging network, the fact that they’re so different from “normal cars” probably didn’t help for a lot of people. At least the Bolt I got didn’t require any learning curve (as someone used to charging).

I'm surprised, though, that Tesla didn't provide Hertz with more support, because they stood to benefit HUGELY from having a widely available rental fleet for potential customers to use for extended test drives.

In some ways the Hertz Tesla program has been a huge success! It's gotten a ton of rideshare drivers into EVs, if nothing else. Personally, I've rented Teslas from Hertz for a couple of week-long road trips and it was a wonderful way to get acquainted, and little perks like being able to use the mobile app were legitimate nice touches.

The biggest problem here was Elon. Tesla's massive price cut last spring kneecapped any customer with a large Tesla fleet and just killed them on residual value. It was a deeply short-sighted decision.

 

[Keeperofthe7keys]

This is classic idiotic shareholder decision making with 0 knowledge of what they're actually making decisions on. Literally just having installed some level 2s and drop the refuel requirement and no issue would have been experienced. They could even have still done that instead of selling them, Very basic stuff, doesn't require much brainpower to figure out.

 

[Mach1E]

Thought this was rather interesting.............

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/business/hertz-ceo-departure-ev/index.html

Trying to rent out a bunch of EVs was a horrible idea.

EVs come with a learning curve and frankly suck for road trips.

Both of which make them a non-starter as a rental.

Would be the equivalent of buying a bunch of manual transmission cars with 5 gallon gas tanks and trying to rent them out.

 

[kodiakng]

Avis appears to be renting Mach-Es and other non-Teslas. a couple days ago i helped one of their customers that ended up with a Mach-E (at least it had an ER battery) - they didn't mind when they picked it up since they'd had a decent experience with a rental tesla before.

they ended up at an EVgo station i was charging at and couldn't get the payment terminals to work; 4 chargers, 1 offline, the one i was charging at and the two others didn't respond at all when presented credit cards (no response to tap, insert, or swipe). big miss for EVgo. at least autocharge+ was working for me and a few others that came through.

i tried to show them how to look up other stations close by in navigation (no charge assist/public charging app on the car) but, since this is a rental, the car isn't authorized/connected to fordpass so you can't look up chargers nearby (the "Where to->Chargers" option is grayed out along with most other "connected car" features).

the only in car option that can work is to navigate somewhere and let the nav software pick chargers for them - well, that's how they ended up at EVgo.

i helped them look up an EA station not far away and they were hopeful but also very frustrated. i really hope they didn't get stranded somewhere along the way to their final destination.

EV manufacturers shouldn't be putting their cars into rental fleets generally unless the rental company really makes an effort of helping their customers with EV specific needs and education. especially not until the manufacturers either make the cars usable by newbie users without access to the connected car features or to make easy access to those features routine for the user during the rental period.

rental companies in general are a scourge.

 

[zvez]

ceo certainly deserved to get canned. Going in the strategic direction of EVs and not having charging stations located at the facilities is insanity. I read where they mentioned consumers might rent an EV and then have to find a place immediately to charge it. That's not customer focused.

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

Now, on the upside, you can pick up a relatively cheap Model 3 or EV6 from Hertz currently. I looked yesterday and there were EV6 Winds with 5-10K miles on the odometer for low $30K's. I just don't currently have the need for a new car. I thought about it, then thought what my wife might do to me........ ? ? ?

 

[dholth]

I had a great time renting Tesla Model 3's from Hertz. $54 cheap! Did an airport run, charged it back up at home, returned it. Our Hertz also has a place for the staff to charge cars.

Then I rented a Model 3 from Avis, and to my surprise they gave me a black Mach-E AWD Extended instead. What a blast. So I bought one.

Also tried doing an airport run with the Bolt, loved the Android auto but after trying 55kW (not-so-)fast charging never wanted to road trip one again.

 

[JellyBelly]

Last week at Hertz rental at an Airport and all they had on hand were a dozen or more Polestars. Did not want to deal with a new EV that I am not familiar with… so just picked the only other choice they had …base Altima . But not surprised that the only cars left were EVs at that lot.

 

[CB1234]

It was mind bogglingly poorly rolled out. I think about when I rent on a business trip. 95% of the time I'm driving <200 miles. If they had a "return at any charge level" policy, I would rent an EV almost every time - so much more convenient. Instead they made it complicated. So I have never rented an EV.

Just put a bunch of L2s at your airport locations and the problem is solved - they become the go-to business trip car rental for the majority of customers.

 

[Mach1E]

Last week at Hertz rental at an Airport and all they had on hand were a dozen or more Polestars. Did not want to deal with a new EV that I am not familiar with… so just picked the only other choice they had …base Altima . But not surprised that the only cars left were EVs at that lot.

This tells you something.

When people pass on a $70k+ luxury EV for a $25k base Altima.

Made me think of this scene from the movie, The Mexican:
?

 

[azerik]

I can rent an EV in Italy for DIRT cheap, like 1/3rd the cost of an ICE Panda. BUT show me where I can charge in Tuscany and we might talk. The lack of planning is insane these days.

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