FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Electric Car Rental - Few Qs
View Single Post
Old Aug 27, 2023 | 11:40 am
  #1  
Jerome10
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 23
Electric Car Rental - Few Qs

Considering renting an electric. I keep wanting to try these for awhile now and will be in the Bay Area, CA in October (most likely OAK, traveling down to Mtn View / Sunnyvale area and then a bit around San Francisco), don't have a massive amount of driving to do, figure there has to be a bazillion places to charge around there and kinda wanna give it a whirl. I'd estimate under 300 miles total.

I checked the threads here and the guides from Avis/Budget. Tesla I can use the Superchargers. Bolt I can use one of the charging network locations. Must return it with 70%+ charge.

My few questions (renting thru Costco Travel):
1) Avis is $30 more than Budget, but Avis shows "Tesla Model 3 Short Range or similar" while Budget shows "Chevy Bolt or similar". I'd like a Tesla. Should I pay the extra $30 at Avis or does it not matter? Meaning using Costco Travel, does Avis just see "electric car" and will give me whatever they have on the lot (Bolt or Tesla)? Or am I much more likely or guaranteed a Tesla with Avis? What about the opposite? If I choose Budget and save $30 will I most likely get a Bolt or am I just as likely to get a Tesla from them? I'll be honest, I don't really want a Bolt and would rather have a gas car at that point so I'd hate to reserve an electric for a bit of extra $ and then ask for a gas car.

2) Am I setting myself up for an epic PITA here? I saw the "fine" for letting the car charge too long ($1/minute or something). The areas I will be near have a few superchargers around them but most of them seem to be 72kW chargers. I think only 1 location had 250kW (I know about cars and a bit about electrics but haven't spent the time calculating recharge times with these numbers). I'm not sure yet if my hotel might have destination charging. I hear horror stories of electric car owners needing to wait hours just to get onto a charger. I need to be sure it is over 70% when dropping off... am I looking at stoppping at a Supercharger on the way to the airport and again, what if I cannot get a spot?

Suppose I like the idea of trying them and I'm willing to experiment a bit a learn and all that but I don't want to find that the electric car is now dictating my trip to me. Oh, yeah, lets go do X... but first we need to stop for 40 minutes to charge... oh and there is an hour wait on top of it! I keep just renting a gas car because this is always what stops me but I think it is possible that I'm finally doing a trip where I don't have hours-long expressway drives requiring multiple long charging stops and figure that the Bay Area probably has chargers everywhere too, making it easier to charge... and so I'd really like to try it but still hesitating.

Appreciate any info provided.

EDIT: Interestingly looking at electrics on Costco Travel for SFO, both Avis and Budget list the Bolt. No Tesla. Is OAK more of a Tesla airport than San Francisco?

Last edited by Jerome10; Aug 27, 2023 at 11:49 am
Jerome10 is offline