There’s no hunting involved, you go where the nav tells you.
This isn't an insurmountable problem, but most people don't like any additional uncertainty when traveling and that extra little bit of friction is probably enough to make travelers want gas powered cars. But I can also see that changing over time as more chargers come on line and especially if hotels start becoming reliable charging destinations. If I could rent an EV and charge at my hotel, that's way more convenient than looking for a gas station.
Some states are generally just better about it as well. Nevada, in particular, has pretty excellent charge infrastructure in remote locations.
That's only true in certain situations: longer trips with superchargers. If you are renting a Tesla for a trip across the country, you're probably golden. If you're renting it for bopping around a city, it's not going to work as you propose. Even if there's a convenient Supercharger, you're likely to be doing enough short trips that you never trigger it to hit a supercharger.
On longer trips though: the Supercharger experience has been exceptional.
For reference: I've had a Tesla since 2016. Just last weekend I was in "the big city" coming home, and turned on navigation and it told me "You don't have enough charge to make it", and I had to do "navigate to supercharger" instead.
It could be so simple: side payment card and done, with the only worry being the power output. (Still a worry that gasoline doesn't have, but OK, I understand that that's a fact of this infrastructure.)
I'm not going to be interested until I am not required to install random proprietary apps on my phone to charge, but I can just use my payment card.
Gas: I'm driving West across the state of Colorado, I'm on I-70 in the mountains, with 2 other vehicles, they get dramatically longer range than I do. I can see 1-2 miles most of the time. My car tells me it's range, but I have no idea where the upcoming petro stations are, I just know that they're going to be "pretty frequent". So at 50 miles I start looking for a station. I pull off, I might have to wait, but usually no more than a few minutes, usually not. I have to mess around with the credit card reader. It's the better part of $100.
Tesla: I tell the car my destination and it tells me where I'm going to stop to charge and for how long. I pull up, I might have to wait but usually not. I plug in. It's free.
Which one is the ordeal?
But, back to the point, where's the ordeal in the Tesla experience?
In a very distant past the only worry might've been if I had enough cash currency of the country I was currently in.
Meanwhile, to be fair, you don't need satnav to get to a gas station -- I-70 has signs a mile or two before every exit telling you which gas stations there are, just like the rest of the interstate system. I'd like to see another blue sign with charging stations, and which businesses you can relax in while you charge!
I'm in agreement that I think they are terrible for most rental car needs.
Excluding Costco, I’ve waited at a gas station maybe 5 times in 15 years of driving across the US and in the world.
I understand that but you won't get there by expecting it day one. These things take time.
It's amazing to me the Tesla was able to roll out the best and most ubiquitous charging network in the US despite being a newcomer in a field that had absolutely no guarantee of catching on any time soon.
It's fine if that time is while you are asleep, or at your destination - but the last thing I wanted to do when returning the car before a flight would be to wait for ~30 mins for the thing to charge up, no matter where the app would direct me to.
Logically you'd have a supercharger at the car rental depot to try and relieve this problem, but alas, the last time I was renting a car, and was considering an electric one from Hertz, this was not an option.
You don't need to use any brain power to fill up a gas tank. I've never driven an EV before. When I'm on vacation or business trip, not sure I'd be in the mindset of learning how to find a charging station and charging a car for the first time in my life.
I'm traveling to a foreign country and renting a car in a few weeks and this is the main reason I don't want to rent an EV. I know I can work out how gas stations work there, I have no idea if can work out how to charge a car (Do I need an app? will that app work on a foreign phone? Do I need a local address/credit card to create an account with that app etc. etc.)
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1094356_how-to-recharge...
Gas stations are all over. I have high confidence in most places that when I notice the gas gauge is getting low I will see a gas station in about 10 minutes without a any detours. By contrast EV chargers exist but you will not see every 10 minutes no matter where you go.
Here in the UK at least, you still don't reliably get (b) or (c) with non-Tesla chargers. Though that is seemingly starting to change.