Hertz Screwed Up Its Tesla Gamble Because of Chargers
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- Опубликовано: 17 апр 2024
- Hertz made a big splash in 2021 announcing a huge order of Teslas. You remember that? It seemed like a perfect marriage: a rental car giant embracing tens of thousands of electric vehicles from Tesla. We all were very excited. But for many renters, the dream quickly turned into a frustrating reality. The problem? Charging.
I read in many places and couldn't find one single place where I could find Hertz putting its own chargers. In fact, on its website Hertz repeatedly points to charging options nearby.
Hertz screwed up. They didn't bother putting charging stations in their lots. Renting an EV car and then having to immediately have to go take it some place to recharge for 45min made the experience suck.
#hertz #tesla
This is Armen Hareyan from Torque News. Please follow us at / torquenewsauto on Twitter and www.torquenews.com/ for daily automotive news. 
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It was about depreciation and repair costs from what I saw.
I totally agree. Just like anyone thinking about an EV, how the vehicle will be charged needs to be worked out first. Before buying my Tesla I went to rent one from Hertz in Pensacola, Fl. Guess what, there are no Superchargers in Pensacola. And they wanted the vehicle returned with at least 90% charge state. This was ridiculous on their part. They should have had enough L2 chargers on site to charge the returned vehicles and not required them to be recharged because the cars were already at a premium rental rate. The cars would have been fine running around locally for several days without people worrying about charging them.
Great insight. I never thought about this way. Having charging at the lot would be so convenient for returning the car as well.
Renting an EV car and then having to immediately have to go take it some place to recharge for 45min made the experience suck.
The Hertz fiasco had numerous mistakes and I witnessed them when renting EVs near their corporate headquarters. First, their agents were very poorly trained to advise customers about charging. They didn’t give customers locations on where to charge or apps for locations. Unless you’re an experienced EV driver, don’t rent an EV while on vacation or a business trip because you don’t have time to charge. Due to lack of chargers at rental centers, many cars were given to customers with less than 80% charge.
Hertz bought 4X the number of EV for test marketing, big mistake and probably why CEO forced out. Also, they failed to recognize major price reductions reducing fleet’s residual value. Stunning, there was no discount when buy high quantity. It was repairs, such as dented bumpers & doors plus wheel rash, not maintenance.
We stopped into a Hertz location in the Tampa Fl area, they had only one L2 charger. Another location nearby stopped ofering EVs because they had so many complaints about charging. Finally, we were at an Electrify America charging station when a couple with a rental Tesla pulled in to charge. Obviously, they had no idea how to use the Tesla navigation to find a charger. There was an EV program discussing whether people on vacation, with no knowledge of EVs, should rent an EV. The consensus was NO! Hertz should ask renters if they know anything about EVs.
I did not know that Hertz didn't have any charging capabilities at their stores. This was a huge mistake on their part. I dont know if Tesla talked to them about it. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. PR is not their strong suit. I've owned my model y for over a year, and charging can be a scary thing if you're not familiar with it. I've always been very happy with the charging. Never had an issue in over 16,000 miles.
The story I heard about Hertz was that they were getting burnt on resale of the rentals. I believe your version of the story.
Keep us informed as to the Hertz/ Tesla saga.
Thanks
Bob
People on a vacation or a business trip don’t want to wait to charge. Also putting all car controls on the screen greatly confused people with no prior Tesla experience. They couldn’t figure out how to do simple things like turn the headlights on or use the radio or turn the seat heater on. People were already stressed navigating a new city; adding stress dealing with very different car controls was too much.
I completely agree with tireddad, it was a big mistake on both Hertz and Tesla not to show rental customers how to first get familiar with an EV especially a Tesla and then how to find chargers. I would be interested in knowing if any charging adapters were included for non Tesla Chargers for both level 2 and level 3.
Thank you.
What would charging have to do with what Hertz specifically said was the issue; ownership (maintenance and depreciation) costs?
You don't think Hertz would've known they could've solved everything just installing chargers? Or by requiring clients to return with a 90+% charge?
Thanks. Great explanation
Glad you l8ked it, and you are welcome.
The same reason was definitely why I didn’t rent an EV though I was interested, and the rate was only a few dollars more than the compact class I rented (though they gave me a mid-size instead).
I only needed a car for several hours, and my schedule (needed to drive family between funeral venues) didn’t include any time to charge an EV. Had the EV come with no charge capacity requirement upon return, I’d have definitely rented it.
Why was it reported in the media that Hertz claimed the maintenance cost was to high? Or is that not true?
Not maintenance so much as repairs. Accident damage . Uber were using their Tesla's and Uber drivers were not gentle with the cars.
And drivers new to EVs aren’t used to the immediate and high torque of the Tesla models they rented out. Insurance companies have noted a higher rate of fender-bender claims for the first 2-3 years of a first EV for a driver, settling down to parity with ICEV afterwards. There is a similar effect for a household with both an EV and an ICEV - when drivers use both (switching between them), the rate of claims remains slightly higher for the EV. Even between our ICEVs, there are notable differences between the sensitivity and response to throttle and braking inputs, so we always need a few minutes to readjust when we switch.
Hertz has car rentals in so many prime locations that partnering with Tesla to offer Super Chargers to rental customers and other electric car owners should have been a “no brainer”. Is it too late?
It makes sense, but better said than done to build charging stations on airport locations though…
EV owners look to rent EVs when traveling, in general. Non EV owners want something to rent that doesn't require instruction.
Many people were not familiar with using a Tesla first time customers needed a film tutorial introduction to the car to know what was going on why not make a tutorial for first time uses of Tesla..... this is obvious
Good point.
Chargers 🙄who would have thought was a good idea ?
:)
I wonder if Sixt in Germany had more success with renting a fleet of BYDs than Tesla with Hertz?
Do you have EV chargers on their lots?
@@Torquenews I don't know about the chargers. I just know that Sixt put an order to buy 100,000 BYD EV cars by 2030. And I don't know the exact reason of why Sixt chose BYD instead of Tesla
@@autoselectricos-americalat9276 BYD I believe is a fraction of the price for an EV with decent range. I also believe they will give a bulk buyer discount where as Tesla's prices are fixed.
It's Tesla sales. Failure to sell a complete solution.
Hertz problem too.
@@Torquenews I would like to see the Hertz experience between Tesla and the Chevy Silverado EV. My impression Tesla treated Hertz as any other retail customer. While I suspect the GM fleet manager visited the Hertz location and insured they had the proper infrastructure in place before deliver.
I recall a video with a Silverado EV plug into a recharger waiting to be picked up at the Hertz rental lot.
@@Torquenews also, the WT Silverado EV can only be purchased by fleet buyers. That should help Hertz when it comes time to resell. A exclusive model not available for retail purchade.
Kinda dumb. You would have thought Tesla would have helped because it was great marketing. So Tesla mistake as well
Both Tesla and Hertz should have thought about this.