OT: Electric Vehicles--anyone driving them or seriously looked at them?

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by corkycalvin

According to this study, leisure rental accounted for the largest segment for rentals.

“Leisure is one of the largest segment of the car rental market in the United States, accounting for the largest share of the market's total value.

The Business segment also accounts for a major share of the market.”

https://www.globaldata.com/data-insi...erica-2036521/

I was simply stating rental companies may find it not profitable if their customers don’t want EV’s thus getting rid of them because profit is what motivates decisions.

Obviously, Tesla and Hertz have data because they’re both data collection behemoths. When this was announced about 3 years ago or so I thought it was a really great idea. Obviously it hasn’t worked out for either party, some of which I blame on both parties.

It is why I don’t get paid the big bucks at Tesla or Hertz!

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by saab2000

I’m not sure I get this. Not that you’re wrong either. But I’d imagine most car rentals, gas or electric, are driven relatively locally.

In my mind, Tesla may not be the right car. There are enough quirks that not all operation is super intuitive. A guy I worked with recently rented one out in the Northern Virginia area. Hertz didn’t do much to educate the renter on a lot of stuff that isn’t necessarily intuitive, like operating controls hidden in the screen because there are very few physical controls. Even the operation of the doors isn’t super intuitive. He talked about how hard it is to find a charger, which is actually super easy. He likely didn’t know how to do this because it’s not necessarily intuitive and I’m guessing the on-site staff never instructed him.

For those who think I’m just an EV Superfan, I’m not. I’m actually really disappointed in these aspects of Tesla ownership. Far too many quirks and way too much that isn’t intuitive for those unfamiliar with the quirks.

Based on what my coworker said, all of which was understandable, I can’t blame him for not wanting that experience again.

To the point where the gate guy at Hertz's PHL location hit me with F*** Y** after I told him to calm down when I couldn't find the mileage on the Tesla tablet.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by Gsinill

To the point where the gate guy at Hertz's PHL location hit me with F*** Y** after I told him to calm down when I couldn't find the mileage on the Tesla tablet.

Yikes. Bad design by Tesla. It’s one of the things that should have a tiny permanent parking spot on their screen. I just went to find it in my garage (lost in the sea of Ferraris,Bentleys, Rollers, Lambos, etc.) and the odo reading was not where I first looked. It’s ridiculous that it’s not ultra intuitive.

But even more inexcusable is your treatment by the Hertz dude. I hope you passed this experience up the chain because that is simply outrageous “service”.

[duff_duffy]

My father in law took his new Honda back to have them show him where the trip odometer was. 2 techs couldn’t figure it out, was not in info he got with car…at that point they wanted to charge him a tech service fee so they could troubleshoot why the trip odometer was not showing up (New Pilot or CRV). Luckily another employee overheard what was going on and eventually figured it out for free. He was about to go crazy it’s not just the electric cars driving people crazy.

I rented a van for work and couldn’t figure out how to get the fan to turn off. Buried in a touchscreen, so stupid. When I returned it they said they get so many complaints about the tech.

Originally Posted by Gsinill

To the point where the gate guy at Hertz's PHL location hit me with F*** Y** after I told him to calm down when I couldn't find the mileage on the Tesla tablet.

[robt57]

Good question, I think the EV Equinox with the new tech module won't have that trickle down to the Bolt in a next gen. I do have to wonder what GM will do once the last Bolts sold with 8yr/100k battery warranty when our 2022 is older. Especially considering the new battery come with a fresh 8/100 warranty, to mitigate settlement cost in short term I'd assume.

I hope there will be a retrofit Module for the old tech cars in 6+ years. Who will be making a module with batteries that prob won't exist in even a few years from now presumably. More likely GM will have been absolved with the new batts and settlement payouts and Bolt owner will have paper weights on wheels.

Enter the aftermarket I guess...

Our 2022 car new HV battery just put in 29 months into ownership. That's just shy of year 3032 expiration for low use cars. Once she retires the 1k month use will drop considerably.

Originally Posted by saab2000

I sincerely hope there will be a next gen Chevy Bolt with 150 kw charging, or faster at a price point that is affordable and that they don’t make it too complicated to use. The genius of Apple products is that they are really quite easy to use even for most who aren’t comfortable with technology.

It seems like a faster-charging Bolt would probably have been a better entry-level rental than a Tesla.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by saab2000

Even the operation of the doors isn’t super intuitive.

LOL, tell me about it.

Went to lunch with a co-worker a few weeks ago and we took his new Model 3.

As we got to the car, I stood by the passenger door, waiting for the automatic handle to pop out (it does on the S). Nope, takes an awkward combination of pushing the rear half of the lever while pulling the front half (good thing I don't have arthritic fingers or coordination problems).

Then we got the restaurant. Took me a moment to find the manual door release. But when I reached for it, the owner told me "No No! Use the button!" Which button you ask? The one that, at a glance, looks like a window or door lock button. So, I push the button and the door make a clunk. No, you have to push the button AND push the door out at the same time.

Mr Musk LOVES to redesign stuff for no good reason. Tesla does a lot of neat things with their cars, but they massively fail when it comes to basic UX for things that should be simple.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by saab2000

Yikes. Bad design by Tesla. It’s one of the things that should have a tiny permanent parking spot on their screen. I just went to find it in my garage (lost in the sea of Ferraris,Bentleys, Rollers, Lambos, etc.) and the odo reading was not where I first looked. It’s ridiculous that it’s not ultra intuitive.

But even more inexcusable is your treatment by the Hertz dude. I hope you passed this experience up the chain because that is simply outrageous “service”.

While I am not a fan of Teslas and especially not the brain behind it, I can't put this one on them.
2:00 in the morning after a delayed flight, a gate agent who obviously didn't want to be there, stress and nervousness, all this didn't help finding it on the screen.

No, I did not, even though that was my plan.
The next day I thought the guy most likely would get fired, he had all my info including my address.
Call me a coward but with 400M guns in circulation and the number of crazy people in this country...

[Ralph]

My wife's 22 Lincoln Nautilus has the owner's manual on the touch screen. It has a good table of contents, but some functions are hidden several pages deep. Big pain to use. I wonder if the voice control would pull it up. Never took to time to find out. These new cars have so much more tech than I need. Although I'm an old guy, I can use it OK, but sometimes to me it seems it's tech for the sake of tech. Like it was developed by some tech whiz who doesn't ever use a vehicle.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Gsinill

2:00 in the morning after a delayed flight, a gate agent who obviously didn't want to be there, stress and nervousness, all this didn't help finding it on the screen.

I hope you did a good phone CAM walk around at time of drop.

Originally Posted by Ralph

My wife's 22 Lincoln Nautilus has the owner's manual on the touch screen. It has a good table of contents, but some functions are hidden several pages deep. Big pain to use.

Ours too. And no way to search. I just DL the PDF and use the phone... At least I can search thu the encyclopedia and save 20 minutes poking about...

[zap]

Originally Posted by corkycalvin

I think consumers are feared by range anxiety. Plugging in and waiting for a charge is not what people want especially if you’re on vacation. Most ppl want to just get to their destination without planning for stops and charging

I was thinking about renting a Tesla when we were in SF, CA but decided I just didn't want the learning curve (never drove a Tesla or any other tablet car) nor deal with taking the time to charge the Tesla. So we rented a Carolla. Filled it up once.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by zap

I was thinking about renting a Tesla when we were in SF, CA but decided I just didn't want the learning curve (never drove a Tesla or any other tablet car) nor deal with taking the time to charge the Tesla. So we rented a Carolla. Filled it up once.

I certainly won’t criticize your rental choice. But I will point out that charging is Tesla’s Ace of Spades. I won’t use the other card reference here to avoid saying that other word.

It takes way less time than most people think. That said, your other point on the learning curve is absolutely valid. If anyone in the western burbs wants a drive and a tutorial for future reference don’t hesitate to reach out!

[trener1]

I have posted this in another thread a while back, but I rented a Polstar from Hertz when I was in CA this past summer and I loved every minute of it, the car was CHEAP to rent, EXTREMELY FUN to drive, I never had any issues charging or even looking for a charger.
And didn't not have any problems figuring out the tech.
Not only did it not ruin my vacation, it added a huge fun factor to it as opposed to if I had rented a corolla or malibue.
Pretty bummed that they are phasing them out.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by zap

I was thinking about renting a Tesla when we were in SF, CA but decided I just didn't want the learning curve (never drove a Tesla or any other tablet car) nor deal with taking the time to charge the Tesla. So we rented a Carolla. Filled it up once.

Commercial rates to charge VS gas prices, you prob spent less for propulsion. The folks, early Tesla buyers got free charging, FYI. Rate/cost mattered not. And on that topic, his S uses about double kWh per mile as the Bolt. Bolt is truly an economy car once past cost of the dame thing. But all car are crazy coin anymore IMO.

Originally Posted by saab2000

I certainly won’t criticize your rental choice. ...It takes way less time than most people think.

Went in a Tesla S from Portland to LeMay Car museum Tacoma and back. 150 miles. The car tells you where to stop to charge. We stopped Castle Rock on the return and left car for 30 minutes and it was charged back to 80%. It may have been done in 20-25, dunno. I was impressed by the process and timely fashion. We ate lunch as I said above.

[Llewellyn]

I'm about the least tech-savvy bloke on the planet but even I didn't have too much trouble working out how to use our Volvo XC40. Great car and we're never going back to ICE. The closest we'd get is hiring one for a long country trip if we couldn't be confident about charging.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by robt57

Commercial rates to charge VS gas prices, you prob spent less for propulsion.

Don’t know what it costs in the Bay Area but I normally have been between $.32/ kWh and $.38/kWh when I’ve been on road trips, which is in the ballpark of gas but still generally lower. At home I spend about 1/3 of that and that’s where the savings come in. Of course, I spent tens of thousands of dollars to save hundreds of dollars annually. It’s why I still don’t recommend this viewpoint for making a decision. If you can pay cash and you need a car because your existing one is essentially or actually done, it makes sense.

One more pro for EVs (again, I’m not a zealot trying to convert anyone - just pointing out my experiences), very very little maintenance. I’ve had mine into the shop for a 1-hour appointment to address a side airbag warranty issue. No cost to me and only there about an hour. The other two times were to change wheels - once to actually install winter tires and swap the wheels and the next time to get it aligned (improved steering but this could happen on any car and it did on my previous ICE vehicle) and swap the summer wheels to the winter wheels since it was already in the shop. No oil changes or timing belts or water pumps, etc. Again, not a hyperfan but minimal maintenance is a pretty neat byproduct of the propulsion type.