The PERILS of Renting an EV

You might have seen that rental company Hertz is making a big push to rent EVs. It recently made the news that it’s scaling back, selling off a lot of those cars it bought a couple of years back and losing a lot of money in the process. As I had to rent a car recently, I thought I’d try a Hertz electric vehicle to understand the experience. Is it as easy as hiring a regular internal combustion engine car? Are there any benefits? What are the problems? And why did my experience end with me crawling down the motorway with no heating in the height of winter?
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[@GryphLane]

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

[@dlevi67]

It's roughly the equivalent of standard public charging rates for open network fast chargers in the UK. Cheapest at the moment is 69 p - the Polestar has a 69 (or 82) kWh battery... 0.69 * 69 = 47.61 and 0.69 * 82 = 56.58 Like the 'pay for fuel in advance' deals on ICE vehicles, it assumes you return the car with an empty battery/tank. Whether that's realistic or fair, completely different question.

[@t4bs594]

Petrol / Gasoline would cost about £81 to fill it up before you returned it, if it were a combustion engined car - just for context. How much extra on top of the £81 would the rental company charge you to fill up with petrol / gasoline?

[@id70b40]

I thought highway robbery was a thing of the past ;)

[@cva1122]

It's out of service and unrentable while charging. I think it's reasonable, but not at 79% charge.

[@forestdad]

@@cva1122 it makes itself unrentable by virtue of it being an EV 😂

[@heiner71]

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.

[@TheBelgian-]

True. When I travel to Europe for visiting friends and family, the EV forward planning is a major nuisance. Done it once, and for now never again.

[@sssxxxttt]

I was in this situation two weeks ago. No way I’m spending an additional hour sitting waiting for the vehicle to charge after a long day of driving (in poor conditions) and working all day. I don’t have a problem with filling up a combustion car though. It’s the time they are trying to steal from me

[@ascgazz7347]

You don’t rent a car “to forget about it”, that would be a cheauffer. Hiring a complex mechanical vehicle capable of killing is not a “forget it” deal. Your comment demonstrates that you are a “forget about it” kind of person. Weak.

[@decimal1815]

People just need to use different hire options. You can hire an EV and travel around the EU with free charging included in the rental.

[@ascgazz7347]

@@decimal1815 the infrastructure isn’t up to scratch yet. All the free charging in the world is useless if you can’t find one that works and is vacant at the time and place that you need it to be. Great tech, needs more support.

[@Ethan7s]

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

[@ludosys4903]

As is hypermiling after a lorry; in the middle of the night, you want to make decent progress to catch your flight. Good thing Hertz is getting rid of Tesla and Polestar. But there is a caveat - they could only cancel their orders if they would not "flood the market" with their used ones since nobody wants them secondhand apparently at a reasonable price.

[@colinstamp9053]

More of a rip-off rental company thing. It's almost like they're deliberately trying to force customers to stump up that extortionate charging fee.

[@gilleyb1900]

Its not just the cold, me an£ the wife were on a fairly long trip, it was around 28 degrees, anyway there was an accident and we ended up queuing for around 40 miles. We were lovely and cool with the air co; on. Next door was an older gentleman in an Audi e-tron, he was not so cool all windows down sweating his ass off. Obviously didnt want to use his AC otherwise he might not have made it to his destination. Any before anyone asks you dont drive a 60+k car and not use the AC.

[@gtiguy9629]

And a unique experience us in 2002 and older car’s experience every day until the heat kicks in 🤣 who knew I was new & old money all this time

[@davidanderson391]

@@gilleyb1900 I’ve sat in long jams in both winter and summer perfectly hot or cool and the battery has lost no more than 1% - an ICE car in the same situation is still burning its fuel 🤷‍♂️ if the story of the Etron was true, perhaps he was very low on battery - being very low on fuel in an ICE vehicle would also mean turning off the a/c At least in an EV you’re not spewing out CO2 in those situations. Maybe you don’t care about that though.

[@UsaSzerelem]

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.

[@WanJae42]

Very common scam my colleagues have had to put up with from all major rental companies. We tell people not to leave the lot without documentation of preexisting damage, and to take photos of the damage that clearly shows the car still in the lot. Fortunately, we only use a group plan now with a single company, and they are more careful in those situations because they don't want to lose the entire university's business.

[@Australiaisupsidedown]

hertz sucks and should have went under.

[@t4bs594]

Your credit card company should help you with a charge back.

[@rods6405]

I only rented a hertz car once also had a bad experience never again !

[@Australiaisupsidedown]

@@t4bs594 no shit. shouldn't have to though.

[@jamesengland7461]

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

[@tjs114]

Most of the Model3 Hertz cars in the US are/were LFP batteries, which Tesla actually recommends charging to full.

[@Adrb22]

Love your content. Very, very exaggerated representation of how charging an electric car really is. If you had someone that never use a petrol car before the challenges would be about the same. What type of gas or diesel, how do I pay? At the pump or do I go inside in the store? How does the car know when to stop or would it overflow? Can I have the car running or do I turn it off while pumping, is this flammable, is the fumes bad for me, etc. as you can see all those fears could be real for somebody that came from the future where all the cars are electric and had no idea what this flammable, smelly and expensive fossil fuel is and how is possible that cars do not explode. Does it sound ridiculous? Yes. Just like your portrayal of electric cars.

[@chefchaudard3580]

@@Adrb22with ICE cars, you know that, wherever you go, refilling it will not be an issue. And, if you don’t feel confident, you just drop the car when you return it. Hertz will only charge you the amount of petrol missing. There is some extra charge, but for 5 or 10 liters, it’s negligible.

[@sergeychmelev5270]

I do not agree. I rent at Hertz and I charge to 100% every time even on week-long rentals. You never know when would be the next time you'll need to charge. Nobody wants to spend their hard-earned vacation looking for charging stations. And range can vary wildly - drive 90mph on I95 in Florida at 100F - and see the range sliced almost in half.

[@KimiFan2002]

It’s Hertz. Enough said.

[@beem6773]

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.

[@MrDuncl]

Look through some old videos and you will see how Big Car went to the USA to work for Microsoft on Car Infotainment.

[@shugthehornyhaggis]

What he's based in the USA mind blown

[@beem6773]

@@MrDuncl I saw that i think in Ford sync video but I assumed it was a 1 max 2 year contract and hes returned since.

[@hktrader88]

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!

[@shaywhelan1]

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.

[@gherkins999]

Try an Audi A5 S-line that I was given as a hire car. It buggered my knee with the vibrations! Teslas have far better ride comfort.

[@k0r31fett]

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.

[@peterfi.]

a sickness on heels🤣

[@rockymount2393]

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.

[@JoshuaC923]

That's a lot of cars

[@sergeychmelev5270]

No wonder - Polestars are even less suitable as rentals than Teslas.

[@jamesengland7461]

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

[@darrenwilson8042]

Best off roader I ever had was a diesel Vauxhall Astra C - could go anywhere that car. Chiefly because it was a company car lol

[@S7tronic]

Europcar-drive it like you stole it..

[@gaveintothedarkness]

........"in the world"........

[@amaccama3267]

In reverse. 😊

[@johnwallis6850]

Also, there is no such thing as a speed hump!

[@Spannertech728]

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…

[@markwoodley712]

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!

[@t4bs594]

So, you rented a combustion engined car - which is what a hybrid is.

[@markwoodley712]

@@t4bs594 Right, offers more flexibility than an EV because of the gas side.🙂

[@wesleyparry1027]

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 😊

[@fhs7838]

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".

[@Eric_Hunt194]

Agreed that's a poor policy from the rental companies- surely they have charging facilities in their garage and presumably a good deal for cheaper electricity?

[@SigfridBlanc]

@@Eric_Hunt194that’s a quite unique Hertz policy, rented a Tesla with Europcar in France, no minimum charge to bring the car back and free Tesla Supercharger access too. Worked out cheaper than renting a Yaris if I had to include petrol 😅

[@davidanderson391]

It’s a poor policy but not an insurmountable problem. Plenty of ultra fast chargers near all UK airports. A “volt and bolt” would have got the car up to over 80% in a matter of minutes.

[@TheRealEmile]

​@@davidanderson391 So it can be at 78% after you've got it there and then have to pay the £53 😂

[@Xtremcookie]

Tbh Evs, at least for now, are generally for home owners or people willing to use fast chargers mostly with something like a Clever unlimited subscription, i say this as a EV owner of 4 years.

[@frazzleface753]

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.

[@darrenwilson8042]

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

[@hartoz]

Yes and no, Volvo make their own EVs as well, and they felt they were diluting their own brand.

[@darrenwilson8042]

Ta - I know I had read something about it recently @@hartoz

[@originalmossman]

I'm confused - isn't it all Geely? (I mean both Volvo and Polestar are just Geely brands)

[@SDK2006b]

@@originalmossman- yep. Geely owns both Volvo and Polestar. This “Polestar is going bankrupt’ story is pure click-bait media garbage.

[@originalmossman]

@@SDK2006b right... So when I said "I'm confused" what I really meant is "this sounds like yet another FUD story planted by the anti-EV oil industry lobbyists..." 😉 There's a lot of that about these days.

[@anthonygray333]

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.

[@aveedub7403]

You dont live in the 3rd world country known as "Un United Kingdom" useless place as are electric cars.😂😂😂

[@MrDuncl]

One car company (Audi ?) did that. Then all the reviews commented on what a poor range their EVs had compared to other manufacturers.

[@billynomates920]

why not? one more lie won't hurt.

[@decimal1815]

No mention of 80% in the hire T&Cs.. images.hertz.com/pdfs/ENGB_EV_RENTAL_TERMS.pdf

[@BlueMonk25]

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!

[@christophetardivat234]

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

[@hartoz]

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).

[@neilturner6749]

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.

[@dlevi67]

A good and probably true analogy of the current state of things. However, a lot of the impulsion in our culture comes from the ready availability of transportation... so if we remove that element, the culture will soon adjust. On your final remark that EVs will never be (well) fit for anything beyond short journeys, I would point out that 1) 80+% of car journeys in the UK are under 10 miles (NTS 2021) and 2) battery (charging) technology is still advancing quite rapidly.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

This, only with less poop in the streets than in the horse-drawn transport era.

[@MrDuncl]

Back then I believe they would swap the horses for a new team and continue. What is needed now is a way of swapping the battery and continuing.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

@@MrDuncl Exactly as most carriage owners in the city rented the horse(s)...

[@marks6663]

That is just it. Why would anyone buy a car that won't be fit for purpose 20% of the time? Are we supposed to have two cars now? One EV and then a real car, an ICE car, for the other 20%@@dlevi67

[@MyBrilliantChannel]

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

[@deanadamedge]

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!

[@Chris.Davies]

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.

[@st-ex8506]

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!

[@zal_models]

i love this vlog style presentation. perhaps more videos like these in future?

[@harapaki3412]

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

[@martinlanza1236]

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

[@chriscuthbertson]

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

[@alex3261]

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

[@flemmingsorensen5470]

Had a Polestar 2 as a loan car, when my Volvo V60 spent a week at the workshop. I wanted to try an EV - and I now love my Volvo hybrid even more! It was a bl... pain, especially during the Scandinavian winter. The car itself, was also quite underwhelming, no comparison to my Volvo. But soon I cant even get an PHEV Volvo, so what brand to choose next? Hope that reality starts sinking in with politicians and car manufacturers.

[@danielstefanovic2604]

im driving a model 3 in scandinavian winter, no problem, yes i have to charge more often but i dont drive that far often anyway, for daily use ev is great even in winter.

[@flemmingsorensen5470]

@@danielstefanovic2604 The Polestar 2 actually also handled really well in the snow - one of the best cars I have tried, in that "dicipline". My problem is, that what I need from a car, cant really be delivered by an EV (high milage and lots of it a high speed in Germany).

[@CheapBastard1988]

Get a Lexus.

[@flemmingsorensen5470]

@@CheapBastard1988 Would love to, but they are not available in Denmark.

[@MrDuncl]

@@flemmingsorensen5470 Toyota ? More or less the same vehicles.

[@fredfred2363]

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.

[@timothycarpenter1476]

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.

[@paulillingworth1242]

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 .

[@id70b40]

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

[@drunkenhobo8020]

Thankfully that's 20 times less likely to happen than in an ICE car.

[@JeffKing310]

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!

[@i20010]

Nice range anxiety video!

[@t4bs594]

Range anxiety is soo yesterday.

[@davidanderson391]

Ironically, the only time in 30+ years of driving I’ve had range anxiety, it was in a petrol car when the distance remaining was showing 0 and I was 3 miles away from a petrol station on holiday in France. Range anxiety has existed for as long as vehicles were powered. And in all cases, myself included, it’s driver stupidity!

[@drunkenhobo8020]

And entirely artificially created by Hertz! Cut the range of the Polestar to about 45 miles.

[@jeffreyrainey1015]

Thank you for sharing this story.

[@patrickvandenhouten855]

very interesting! thank you for sharing this!

[@originalmossman]

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.

[@ericb9881]

I came to say something similar. The recent generations of EVs with their active battery temperature management have far less battery degradation than the leaf. And more recent studies show charging over 80% and fast charging are less likely to lead to degradation than previously thought.

[@rdvil]

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.

[@originalmossman]

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...

[@drfisheye]

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.

[@megapangolin1093]

It will be very difficult to have a charger at every parking spot, the electrical infrastructure wont be able to handle all of that. What will happen is that a number of places will be reserved and "shared" and everyone will be queueing up for the few available. Booking systems would be sensible, but wont work, as people will overstay, forget, car breaks down, charger breaks, electronics not working, phonelines not working to fix it... the list goes on. Everyone will be holding their breath for every long journey that the system will work, but, as we know post the Pandemic, very few things now work smoothly. Oh yes then there will be the damsel in distress... "I need to pick up my kid/old mum in half an hour, can I have your space, my charger doesnt work". Anyway, very useful and informative video, thank you. Even if the batteries last, the software and electronics wont, they will be treated like phones, unless you update, the manufacturer wont be responsible for the car working safely, which would void the car insurance.

[@Steve-GM0HUU]

That key fob reminded me of the controls on the Disaster Area stunt ship in the Hitchhiker's Guide series.

[@TheInstructor66]

I remember hearing that in 1966, people in the US was renting a Shelby 350 Gt Hertz to race it on weekends. Wonder if they had to pay for the worn tire tread when they returned it. 😅

[@richardcrossley5581]

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.

[@wonkybear4400]

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

[@Bradtheone]

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 😊

[@aveedub7403]

Rip off Britain buddy!!😂😂😂😂

[@frazzleface753]

Car rental outlets at large airports are notoriously worse than the smaller guys. So many customers. So many opportunities to rip people off and not even feel a dent in large profits when the complaints come in. The number of disgruntled customers I have seen is hard to believe, but they just laugh you away because there is always a long line of patiently waiting 'mugs'.

[@sr20trx]

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.

[@heidelbergaren5054]

EV infrastructure is fantastic, every household has to be able to charge a car

[@alivekicking6247]

Don't bother with these horrible milk floats. Hire a decent petrol car.

[@EleanorPeterson]

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.🤔

[@Rom3_29]

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…

[@davedear929]

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.

[@MartiA1973]

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.

[@sahhull]

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.

[@deanstyles2567]

I rented a Polestar 2 in October (through a different company). I had to return the car with at least 20% SOC. All went fine except the nearest charging point was 15km from where I was staying and the first time I went to charge there, it was full so I had to drive another 30km to the next charger.

[@florianmallok7770]

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.

[@cameltorun]

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.

[@meantares]

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

[@ahoinkis]

Great video. Thank you!

[@CheapBastard1988]

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.

[@andrewfarrow4699]

Average age of cars on the road in New Zealand is 15 years. No salt on roads mean no rust. Outside of the big cities people are mostly not judged on the cars they drive. I am far from alone in thinking old cars are cool and a new BMW would be somewhat of an embarrassment. I know lots of wealthy guys driving old Toyota's and Jags. We have 4 cars in our family ranging from 26 to 17 years old. They are all going strong.

[@chrisdavidson911]

a rental car's going to go 20 years on the original engine and gearbox?

[@MrDuncl]

My ex rental car lasted 14 years and 99600 miles which was ironic as I kept joking it would fall apart 100000 miles. When the engine started clanking the car was worth so little that it wasn't even enquiring about repairing it, especially since the annual road tax had gone up to the point where it was more than the car was worth. Your Mondeo might be worth a lot to you but unless it is very low mileage it won't be worth much to anyone else.

[@chrisdavidson911]

@@MrDuncl ex rental it wasn't a rental for 14 or 20 years

[@Ribeirasacra]

First may I say they are not head rests - they are head restraints. The forcing your head forward is a way of stopping neck injuries. I thought all newer cars had this design.

[@curtcollett2893]

My Camry had that uncomfortable pushing the head forward design. So uncomfortable I reversed the restraint and heightened it, ziptied two auto neck pillows together and attached them to the rods. Still very close for safety but not forcing me into an unnatural and painful body contortion.

[@nihongobenkyoshimasu3190]

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

[@legerdemain]

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.

[@nothandmade9686]

That is close to where I live. M42 services in Solihull would have done.

[@clazy8]

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.

[@christopherconard2831]

When I read the thumbnail I saw "The perils of renting an RV". Well, it definitely fit the description of Big Car.

[@joedarkness808]

On my trip back to the UK I rented a polestar from Hertz however then I got to the office they gave me a Tesla Model 3 instead or I think I would have had the same charging fun as you had .. I think what you need with EV rentals now is time and planning esp if you don't have somewhere you can charge overnight .. with the tesla charge network it's easy to just plug and walk to the shops and 30 mins later your car is close to full .. the way it turned out the rental and the charging costs were cheaper than an the lowest petrol car

[@davidanderson391]

In the UK there are infinitely more non-Tesla fast chargers than there are Tesla ones. The USP of buying Tesla over other manufacturers has gone. Literally all fast chargers now allow you to plug in, walk to the shops, and come back to a decent battery regardless of who made the car.

[@viqarqadir]

Have you heard of NIO? It’s a Chinese car company with battery swap as an added means of energy replenishment. I would love to hear your thoughts about that technology and hopefully someday your driving impressions

[@JesperD87]

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 KZbin 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.

[@henriknilsson7851]

I have rented a Polestar 2 and a Chevrolet Bolt. I really liked both of them, but I was just driving around town. My longest drive was about 70 miles on the freeway. I kept up with traffic, so I was going about 80mph. A standard Polestar like I drove is good for about 210 miles driving like this. Having said this, I did have to urgently use a fast charger before I returned the Polestar to Hertz. An electric car like these would be a great second car, for short-mid range trips.

[@johndoyle4723]

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.

[@certificateofvaccinationi.d.19]

3 cars in 10 years...very eco-minded of you mate.

[@user-rs5do6ud6b]

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.

[@ccampbell1117]

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 ?

[@beatmeierbm]

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

[@Farlig69]

5:59 do as is law in Norway, non EV's are not allowed to park in charging spots. Simplez

[@Pyoutube2023]

Same here in Belgium

[@C.I...]

No.

[@MrDuncl]

Even on private land ? (which a care home almost certainly is). I can just imagine someone having to tell the residents there is no dinner because the chef couldn't find a parking space.

[@shashawo]

You raised a point in the video id never thought about before. ...Down the track every space will have an EV charging station... Surely that would that would take from what little carbon footprint benifits are left from people trading in a perfectly good late model car to get an EV for the sake of getting an EV. Combustion engines are on their way out but im just not convinced battery powered electric is the answer.

[@MrDuncl]

The good late model ICE cars will end up in places like rural Wales and Scotland where charging infrastructure is minimal> I reckon they might actually start to fetch a premium over new EVs.

[@uncipaws7643]

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.

[@gunnarparment5050]

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. 😀

[@regisdumoulin]

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)

[@joeseeking3572]

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.

[@Adrb22]

Love your content. If you had someone that never use a petrol car before the challenges would be about the same. What type of gas or diesel, how do I pay? At the pump or do I go inside in the store? How does the car know when to stop or would it overflow? Can I have the car running or do I turn it off while pumping, is this flammable, are the fumes bad for me, etc. as you can see all those fears could be real for somebody.Does it sound ridiculous? Yes. Just like your portrayal of electric cars and the horrible experience that is it. this video will not aged well.

[@Ildskalli]

You make some good points, but I had an even worse experience renting an EV in Portugal last November than what’s in the video, and I own a freaking EV! As a non-EU foreigner, it was literally impossible for us to charge anywhere, since the asshats at SIXT never gave us the keycard for recharging. They literally had to tow us from a shopping mall after we exhausted the battery (and lost almost a complete day of our vacation) looking for one miserable charging point that we could use. I suggested them to just ship us the doggone card, but nooo, they had to tow the car and drive us all the way back to Lisbon. Then other horrible things happened that aren’t really related to the EV, but anyway, it’s not a stretch to say that I was scarred by that experience, even if everything else ran smoothly once we got the stupid card. Things like these do nothing but damage to the reputation of EVs.

[@Adrb22]

⁠@@Ildskalli ha! coincidentally I also had a terrible experience renting a car with SIXT in Portugal. But on the topic of electric cars, I would put the blame on the car rental company for not foreseeing what are the challenges that renting electric have, instead of blaming electric cars. Electric cars a far superior in many ways that ice cars are. I also had a bad experience with Hertz in Los Angeles. The model Y I reserved and paid for in advance was not charged. Is it Tesla’s fault that Hertz didn’t have fast chargers installed in their locations before getting into the electric car rental business? No, is Hertz’s fault. Furthermore, Hertz recently went public with how bad electric cars are as rentals, really? Maybe it was bad planning on their part as I saw in L.A. They drove customers like me willing to rent electric cars away with their terrible customer service and lack of planning. Finally, if you had a bad experience making a phone call with an IPhone, is it Apple’s fault or the service provider you use? Hence, is the rental company and the shitty service and experience they are providing? Just my thoughts

[@Andyface79]

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.

[@stevenr2463]

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.

[@stevenr2463]

Oh yes - you said you drive an EV in the US!?! Well. my wife was there (NYC, NY then up to Vermont aso) last autumn and said she saw no traces of EVs anywhere.

[@dxutube]

6:00 frunk not fully shut, a common issue on 2s

[@Stuartrusty]

Although I agree that hypermiling maybe a way to extend range, in those temperatures I think I would have used the heated seat at least. If we consider that being a rental car, that model may possibly be the smaller 69kWh battery pack. A quick search found the power consumption of a heated seat to be around 50 Watts. Your journey took 1 hour. That's 50Wh (0.05kWh). That's a fraction over 0.07% of battery capacity, so negligible that it is not worth freezing your assets over.

[@jenswinther8601]

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

[@dlevi67]

Just like the "pay for your fuel in advance" thinking.

[@mattsword41]

also daily drive an EV but have been put off hiring one when abroad due to having to return will full battery - too much stress when have the stress of normal travel anyway

[@rusty911s2]

Worth pointing out that an indicated 100% charge isn't actually 100%, it'll probably be early 90's. Similarly, 1% will probably 8-10% or so. Manufacturers put artificial floors and ceilings on battery charge / discharge levels to extend battery life. Early Leafs didn't have great battery management. Generally later EV's are much improved.

[@I_hate_Vegemite]

No problem with a Tesla Model Y rental in Australia from SixT. You can return it with 10% and they’ll charge overnight at no charge before renting it again. Very cheap to rent too, although the additional insurance cover is a bit dearer than a ubiquitous Corolla auto (that costs the same base amount to rent). Charging is free at Tesla and ChargeFox superchargers. It’s a no-brainer.

[@JoshuaC923]

Why do you need 24 hours to find out battery life😅 iphone does it in few seconds. That key fob is ridiculously cheap, could it be a replacement unit?

[@StephenChadwick-qd1wu]

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

[@keithnewton8981]

The only issue I had with a rental car ev was the fact they refused to supply me a charging cable according to europcar the cables cost £3000 lies Then I was told they have no electricity so why would they have cable for the cars. In the end the insurance Company told Europcar to collect the car which by now was down a country lane with no charge another car hire Company supplied me with a car ev with cables full charged . Europcar turned up to my house to collect there car and I told the it was 12 miles away in a road with now power as I could not charge as there no cable . I gave him the key said goodbye. He was not happy .

[@CathodeRayNipplez]

I will never use Hertz after what they did to customers in the US.

[@mortenblomandersen4041]

12:06 The 'saving the planet' argument is perhaps slightly off when hiring a car at an airport 😂

[@philhealey4443]

Given mainstream rental companies generally just charge a higher fuel cost per litre for any shortfall at return, 53 quid seems a bit steep as a flat rate penalty here. A cost per % charge seems more reasonable given you can't expect to top up an EV at an airport in 10 minutes, which you invariably can with a petrol or diesel car.

[@rolandbogush2594]

I found both your video and many of the comments to be very thought-provoking. Clearly, most people who own EVs are mostly very happy with them - I guess they just take a different kind of planning to ICE vehicles, and have an ownership learning curve. I think the UK charging infrastructure needs to develop somewhat before I would get an EV - although the vast majority of my journeys would easily be in range of home, occasionally I do need to do a 300-mile round trip, and I have no idea how easy it would be to recharge mid-way. Probably, not very difficult once I found out where and how, but with my petrol-engined car, it's not even something I have to think about.

[@MrDuncl]

This explains why used EV prices are plummeting. There is a 2020 Audi Etron on Autotrader U.K. for under £17000. That is slightly less than the cheapest equivalent ICE Q3.

[@howardgaskin6117]

Future, my arse.

[@nicholasjones9705]

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.

[@dfgeek]

I've had the same stress when hiring a petrol car in Spain. I was stressed the first time I hired it and had to find a petrol station close to the airport (within 10Km) to ensure that I did not incur extra charges. It's not just an EV thing. We need the hire companies to just include the realistic cost of the fuel/energy that is in the vehicle when hired. Stop scalping the customer.