FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Consolidated "Renting an Electric Vehicle from Hertz" Thread
Old Oct 18, 2024 | 7:01 pm
  #998  
jackal
FlyerTalk Evangelist
1M
60 Nights
50 Countries Visited
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S+, Choice Platinum
Posts: 23,317
Originally Posted by Benjh
I'm actually renting a Tesla Model 3 next week precisely at MCO. I picked the car as a "guaranteed model" reservation. It wasn't cheap. There were many EV options available: Bolt, Manager's choice, Polestar 2, etc.
Now, I'm very late to the EV renting game (you'd say, way too late..., but I want to test drive a Tesla so this is my best bet) so I do have a couple of questions:
- Could I have rented something else cheaper and just picked a Tesla in the PC section? Are they ever there?
- Should that pick be an EV to make sure I'm allowed to drive out with an EV?
- Considering I'm guaranteed an upgrade as a PC, what does this allow me here?
- Do they come with adapters for non-Tesla chargers? As I said I've never driven an EV so I'm very new to this, apologies I tried to find the answer in this thread but the verbiage confuses me.

Thanks all!
My personal experience at MCO a few months ago was no Teslas in the PC section, but I did end up with a very nice Volvo XC40 Recharge. Hertz has vastly slimmed down its Tesla fleet, and they are no longer trying to force regular economy car renters into Teslas because no one else will rent them. In fact, they've slimmed their Tesla fleet down so much that some people with "model guaranteed" Tesla reservations are being forced to take something else because there were no Teslas on hand. If you scroll upthread not too much, I pointed out that I actually haven't seen any Teslas at any rental locations in the past ~6 months, but others then jumped in to report seeing some. I would say it's definitely a mixed bag of a chance you'd find one in a PC aisle, so booking a guaranteed model is probably wise if it's that important to you.

All Teslas come new from the factory with the J-1772-to-Tesla adapter. Hertz is supposed to provide them, but I've personally rented several Teslas where they were missing. Back in the day when Hertz locations were overflowing with Teslas, I would regularly comb the Tesla aisle for a LR Dual Motor variant among a sea of SR+ RWD models...and then if the one I picked was missing the adapter, I was not above surreptitiously snatching one out of an adjacent car.

If you do not have an adapter (and cannot steal one), then specifically marked "Tesla Destination Chargers" don't require the adapter as they fit natively in your car. But most level 2 (slow) chargers you'll find at hotels/restaurants/grocery stores/etc. are the J-1772 variant. Best to confirm the plug type on PlugShare, which is the gold-standard app for locating chargers.
jackal is offline