LJ7006

Dear FT,
I know National/Enterprise has long had Tesla model S and a few model X in the fleet and I believe somebody here had recently spotted and rented the Kona EV.

I personally had seen the Kia Niro EV at BUR and ONT location.
And the most special one recently, Polestar 2 at ONT.

I wonder if National is trying to get all kinds of EV.
It will be a nice addition and definitely interesting cars to rent.

m907

There is some discussion in the fleet thread.

I saw the Polestar 2 at ATL and a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid at IAD. I don't know if it's a concerted effort on National's part to acquire more EVs; I think it's more because National is desperate for cars, and manufacturers are happy to offload them since EVs are often slow-selling compliance cars.

slariz

Most manufacturers can't make their electrics fast enough these days - hardly any on the lots and long waiting lists. This isn't 2017 anymore.

Do you have to return them full like you do gas vehicles?

m907

There are long waiting lists because they make so few of them because so few people want them. People don't even want to rent them; at ATL an employee told me they were having trouble getting anyone to take a Polestar.

I've only rented an EV once and they said I didn't need to return it recharged.

slariz

That's not why there are long waiting lists. There are long waiting lists because they aren't making enough and they aren't coming fast enough. Plus, parts supply issues.

But back to the topic at hand - interesting that they don't want them returned charged. I wonder if that will stick - they make a lot of money off refueling, and obviously it takes longer to charge an EV than it does to refill a gas tank, so that means the vehicle is out of service longer. Unless they are renting them with less than a full charge.

If that Polestar was a Tesla, it would have been rented immediately. But nobody knows what a Polestar is (but they are great cars) and the charging is more confusing for someone unfamiliar than just finding a Tesla Supercharger.

xienon

Pretty sure almost no one will rent an EV if you require them to be fully charged at return. DC fast chargers aren't everywhere and telling someone to take an hour or more to fully charge a car before a flight is unworkable. Also, EVs charge much much slower when batteries reach 80% or so.

For now, they are being treated as tests by Enterprise to understand the logistics around EVs and gauge the underlying demand.

ralphs

I was at LAX National on Sun Oct 3 and saw a Kia Niro EV. Oddly, the Maroney sticker and manual were sitting in the passenger seat in a plastic bag. The MSRP was pretty substantial. I've never used an EV so I don't know how I'd charge it but I popped open the charge port in front.

xienon

There's still the $7500 federal tax credit and various state level incentives on Kia EV's. So the real delivered price is ~$10k lower. Once those incentives expire, the OEM will lower the price (like Tesla and Chevy Bolt)

m907

If they adopt a policy requiring EVs to be recharged before return, they will never be able to rent one to anybody.

I believe that EVs will never get wide adoption and will remain a small niche until there is a major breakthrough in battery technology allowing rapid recharging. Hybrids may become commonplace, but not EVs.

wakesetter93

I saw the Polestar and the Mitsubishi EV SUV at LAX last month. Polestar was off to the side but the Mitsubishi was in the EE.

xienon

The Mitsubishi Outlander is a PHEV (plug-in). They don't sell any pure battery EV's in the US.

wakesetter93

Ah, I am admittedly not up to speed on Mitsubishi's product offerings. I was going off the bug EV badge on the front.

Nitehawk

I love EVs and would gladly rent a Polestar, except that usually when I rent vehicles I need to drive long distances to remote locations.

That being said I'm really pleased to see enterprise grabbing some. Not requiring them to be returned charged is also a good policy. I think some of you are forgetting that the cost of charging an EV is next to nothing when compared to the cost of gas (depends on the price per kWh of course). Fast chargers are expensive to use but Level 2, which enterprise probably has in the garage is quite cheap...where I live the cost is about $1.25 USD per 60 miles of driving. The issue is it takes a few hours to recharge the car on L2, so they won't be able to re rent it immediately. Also EVs don't need much maintenance, no oil changes...that will help offset enterprises charging costs.

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ralphs

I think it would be really helpful if the National/Enterprise surfaced the expected range of a fully charged EV. Otherwise I see a future in which I'm stuck Googling the range of an EV while in the Executive Aisle lot.

Nitehawk

You can always jump in and “start” it. Available range will be displayed.