Renting an Electric Vehicle
Posted by stephania.fregosi
As an electric car owner, people often tell me about their electric car experiences. I get to hear about both their excitement around their new purchases and their vehicle woes. In recent years, the most common complaint has been that of someone who was unexpectedly handed an electric vehicle (EV) at a rental agency. Typically I’ve met this person while charging my own vehicle and counseled that person through charging up their car.
This past December, my family had our own surprise encounter when we were handed a Tesla for a long-distance trip along the US East Coast. As nice as a vehicle the Tesla Model 3 is, it certainly came with a steep learning curve that caught our family, seasoned electric vehicle owners, somewhat aback.
It turns out that Hertz Rental Car has plans to go all electric. While laudable news, I personally want everyone’s first experience with an electric vehicle to be a positive one, so I thought I’d provide a little advice.
When you go to get your next rental vehicle, call ahead to verify your vehicle type. Despite the website’s statement that we were getting a compact car or equivalent, it turned out we were renting from a venue that only had Tesla’s.
If you are getting an electric car and honestly, this couldn’t be a better way to try one out, there are a few things I strongly recommend you think about. I’d start with this article, 5 Things You Need to Know Before Renting an Electric Car.
Electric vehicles are a little different from gas-powered cars in a few ways:
- Distance vs. Range: To sum up, some considerations are the range of your vehicle, how you are going to use the car, the weather, how to refuel the car, and how to use your vehicle. On a longer trip, like the one we took from New Hampshire to Philadelphia, you might expect to have to make two half-hour stops and a third so as to “return the car full.” Also, you can’t charge a non-Tesla at a Tesla charging station and that article above will help you out.
- Acceleration and Deceleration: The first is in how much pick-up they have when you press the accelerator and how much they slow down when you hit the brake. This can take a little getting used to and a couple laps around a parking lot before you hit the highway is a good idea.
- Automation: A lot of unexpected things tend to be automatic and or digital! For example, even the heat in the Tesla is controlled by the screen. And as far as I could tell the wipers were automatic or digital. In most, if not all EVs the heated seats and heated steering wheel are powered by a 12-volt battery which helps to extend the range of the car’s main battery.
- Digital Age: The refueling of an electric vehicle requires digital wayfinding and unless you have a Tesla, you will need a touchscreen phone and a willingness to provide a credit card number through an app in order to refuel your vehicle. PlugShare is a great app that helps folks map their way through charging stations – the Tesla has a built-in computer that works really well for both navigation and finding Tesla charging stations, but in other vehicles, I’d stick to the PlugShare app.
I hope this helps make your EV adventure a little smoother. Please get in touch with us at sustainability@pcc.edu with questions.
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