I will never again rent an EV and I have no idea how people deal with this

[Anonymous]

In the future get a Tesla, the rest are not a good option for their lack of a decent charging network and are at least 5 year behind

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coming back to update - thank you to the poster suggesting on finding a level 3.

The saga continues and is so bad it's funny. Level 3 charger #1 was replaced by Tesla chargers (not compatible), level 3 charger #2 wasn't working, level 3 charger #3 works! So this whole ordeal took at least, at least 60 minutes. The charge to 80% (from 50%) will take 25 minutes. The charger is 30 minutes from where we are staying.

I can't see how this system would work if California gets its way and we are all driving EVs with different adapters that aren't compatible. Every hotel has charger in every parking lot space? Just total chaos.

For everyone asking the rental car agency gave the car at 25% charged (80 miles) which was fine to where we needed to go but with me not knowing it could take 10 hours to get to 80%.

Starting next year, almost all new cars will be standardized on the Tesla-style connector. Tesla is in the process of opening its supercharger network to non-Tesla cars. Ford and Rivian already have access. GM is in process of getting access. Volvo, Polstar, and Mercedes-Benz will be next.

There are multiple efforts to expand DC fast charging (level 3) charging networks. In a couple of years, we will have fast chargers coming out of our ears.

As you have found, there is a bit of a learning curve. But once you get used to it, it's not a big deal.

I mean spending over 1.5 hours to charge a car isn't exactly how I want to spend my vacation. Way too inconvenient vs getting gas.

Your car didn't require 1.5 hours. This was a result of your not understanding EVs. An experienced EV driver would know what type of charger is required, would have an app telling not only the location of charging stations, but the availability of specific chargers at the station. Even a relatively long charging session would be less than 30 minutes. Most would be around 15 minutes. The rental agency was at fault for not preparing you better.

You aren't understanding the math - 30 min to the closest level 3 charging station, 25 minutes to charge, 30 minutes back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, I'll start with I know nothing about EVs. I don't own one. I rented a car for a trip that was an EV. The rental guy offered me a car that wasn't fully charged. I was like, oh no big deal that's fine.

Actually it's not. I had this wrong impression that somehow it doesn't take 6-8 hours to charge. Ugh. So, so wrong.

Finding EV chargers is so-so depending on where you are. Certainly not one that is convenient for 8 hours.

Anyway let this serve as a warning to others. Don't rent a EV.

Mistake number one: You know nothing about EV and the EV you chose to rent is a KIA. Don’t do that again.
Any EV not a Tesla is basically junk. Next time rent a Tesla and you’ll be fine.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I'll start with I know nothing about EVs. I don't own one. I rented a car for a trip that was an EV. The rental guy offered me a car that wasn't fully charged. I was like, oh no big deal that's fine.

Actually it's not. I had this wrong impression that somehow it doesn't take 6-8 hours to charge. Ugh. So, so wrong.

Finding EV chargers is so-so depending on where you are. Certainly not one that is convenient for 8 hours.

Anyway let this serve as a warning to others. Don't rent a EV.

Mistake number one: You know nothing about EV and the EV you chose to rent is a KIA. Don’t do that again.
Any EV not a Tesla is basically junk. Next time rent a Tesla and you’ll be fine.

It sounds like she was out in the middle of nowhere and since two of the chargers were converted to be used by Teslas, that was probably also the closest Tesla charger.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I'll start with I know nothing about EVs. I don't own one. I rented a car for a trip that was an EV. The rental guy offered me a car that wasn't fully charged. I was like, oh no big deal that's fine.

Actually it's not. I had this wrong impression that somehow it doesn't take 6-8 hours to charge. Ugh. So, so wrong.

Finding EV chargers is so-so depending on where you are. Certainly not one that is convenient for 8 hours.

Anyway let this serve as a warning to others. Don't rent a EV.

Mistake number one: You know nothing about EV and the EV you chose to rent is a KIA. Don’t do that again.
Any EV not a Tesla is basically junk. Next time rent a Tesla and you’ll be fine.

It sounds like she was out in the middle of nowhere and since two of the chargers were converted to be used by Teslas, that was probably also the closest Tesla charger.

There are a good number of chargers but they are all super slow and only a few level 3s. One converted to Tesla, one was non-operational and one worked. I'm not really in the middle of nowhere, about 1 hour outside of a major NE city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the future get a Tesla, the rest are not a good option for their lack of a decent charging network and are at least 5 year behind

This is completely false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I'll start with I know nothing about EVs. I don't own one. I rented a car for a trip that was an EV. The rental guy offered me a car that wasn't fully charged. I was like, oh no big deal that's fine.

Actually it's not. I had this wrong impression that somehow it doesn't take 6-8 hours to charge. Ugh. So, so wrong.

Finding EV chargers is so-so depending on where you are. Certainly not one that is convenient for 8 hours.

Anyway let this serve as a warning to others. Don't rent a EV.

Mistake number one: You know nothing about EV and the EV you chose to rent is a KIA. Don’t do that again.
Any EV not a Tesla is basically junk. Next time rent a Tesla and you’ll be fine.

Teslas are garbage and you’re wrong about everything else too.

When did dcum become the stomping ground for so many day trading, bitcoin pumping, musk fan boys?

[Anonymous]

My hot take: The car companies should stop requiring customers to return EVs fully charged (or even at 80 percent) if they want to get them rented — surely they have level 2 chargers at their rental locations, and they could probably start to put level 3 ones in for quick turnovers if they have them on the books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I'll start with I know nothing about EVs. I don't own one. I rented a car for a trip that was an EV. The rental guy offered me a car that wasn't fully charged. I was like, oh no big deal that's fine.

Actually it's not. I had this wrong impression that somehow it doesn't take 6-8 hours to charge. Ugh. So, so wrong.

Finding EV chargers is so-so depending on where you are. Certainly not one that is convenient for 8 hours.

Anyway let this serve as a warning to others. Don't rent a EV.

Mistake number one: You know nothing about EV and the EV you chose to rent is a KIA. Don’t do that again.
Any EV not a Tesla is basically junk. Next time rent a Tesla and you’ll be fine.

Teslas are garbage and you’re wrong about everything else too.

When did dcum become the stomping ground for so many day trading, bitcoin pumping, musk fan boys?

When comes to mass produce rental cars, Tesla really is the best. I'm a Musk hater from the beginning, but I still have a tesla. It is amazing and it's range and ease of charging.

I also have a hybrid and a high performance luxury EV. The luxury EV is also really good. So is the audi. But they're not renting those as much as they are Teslas and kias.

If you have a choice in rental, always go with the Tesla.

And as someone pointed out many times, 80% is normal when we return our car that's all we're required to have it charged at.

[Anonymous]

^<its. And I'm not going to bother to correct the other errors. But I made a few and hopefully my point still came across.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:The problem is the rental agency not giving a EV 101 talk to their customers.

Yes! I was surprised when a rental company offered me an EV. I was going to need the car for maybe 2 weeks while my car was being repaired. I asked the guy at the rental agency if i'd be able to charge it at home, and he didn't know. Then had to spend some time digging for charging cable, or whatever its called. I ended up getting a non-EV.

[Anonymous]

I hate being on the bleeding edge of any transition. I'll let others try new newest shinyest change first and wait until the system and infrastructure debugs all the problems before getting into it.

At this point EVs are just becoming tolerable for home-use, but it's still way too new to deal with rentals, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate being on the bleeding edge of any transition. I'll let others try new newest shinyest change first and wait until the system and infrastructure debugs all the problems before getting into it.

At this point EVs are just becoming tolerable for home-use, but it's still way too new to deal with rentals, IMHO.

I will say that if you already have an EV and want a rental car on a trip, a rental EV will be easier, since you know how to find a charger, you probably have the relevant apps, you know how much time to plan to book for charging, etc.

[Anonymous]

We were given a Tesla recently in a European country and didn't have a choice of another car. It was a pain given that we were going to a rural area and no one explained a darn thing to us about how to use it. It turned out fine, but we did have to drive about an hour away a couple times to charge; there were more local chargers but they didn't work (confirmed by others who have traveled to the area).

[Anonymous]

We were given a Tesla recently in a European country and didn't have a choice of another car. It was a pain given that we were going to a rural area and no one explained a darn thing to us about how to use it. It turned out fine, but we did have to drive about an hour away a couple times to charge; there were more local chargers but they didn't work (confirmed by others who have traveled to the area)

Those other chargers will work with a Tesla, but you need to use an adaptor (which should be provided in the car, but probably isn't because rental companies don't want to pay for them).