Last week I prepaid for a 3-week rental of a Tesla Model 3 (with a model guarantee) from a fairly busy HLE location in Florida that I’ve rented in the past from many times. When I arrived to pick up the car today, I was informed that they had no Tesla vehicles available and wouldn’t be renting them out anymore as they are being sent to be sold upon return. Instead, I was given a Kia Niro, which I’m really not thrilled with, and was told it was the only option available as they had no other gas or electric vehicles.

My question is: Has anyone successfully rented a Tesla from the Orlando Airport in the last few days here? I’ve seen the news recently about the second wave of the great Hertz Tesla sell off and I’m concerned that no locations, big or small, will have them available anymore. I’m pretty close to MCO but want to avoid the exchange hassle if they’ll just tell me the same thing and stick me in another less desirable EV.

What’s the best course of action in this situation? Ive read the “policy” re: model guarantee reservations (they will either match or go above the vehicle class you originally reserved) - but not sure how that would work with the Tesla specific reservation. The “intermediate EV” class was a few hundred dollars cheaper than the Tesla option, so I don’t see the Niro as a match or upgrade.

To add to my confusion, I don’t understand why Tesla vehicles are *still* available as a model guarantee selection to rent on the website today for most locations, especially since the Tesla model guarantee option is sometimes the only reservation type that gives you the option to “pay now.”

thanks in advance for your input and suggestions, everyone!
​​​​​

Because Hertz doesn't always match inventory to what's on offer through its reservations system. It's bait and switch.

At this point, I don't think you can ever count on getting a Tesla at any Hertz location.

Seems like you can do even worse than renting from Hertz… and that is prepaying for their scam service.

I usually will prepay as long as the price makes it worth it - this round, a non-prepaid reservation was $1200. If I prepaid, it was $800 - but now I don’t have a Tesla, lol.

If I wanted a Tesla, I would not choose Hertz anymore. I still see them at Budget/Avis and would book through them instead.

I was looking for a rental around Christmas and I noticed that MCO had Tesla 3 as a guaranteed model to reserve. I wonder what the chances are that this would actually happen.