Hertz desperate to unload Tesla inventory, asking customers to buy rentals
jalopnik.com
jalopnik.com
This feels like a load-bearing assumption that makes or breaks the thesis of the article that deserves more than being an assumption.
The model 3 warranty on Tesla's website does say that it covers ownership transfer, but who knows what language is in the Hertz purchase agreement.
"For what it’s worth, there are a ton of used Teslas on the Hertz Car Sales site, but anything priced this cheaply shows well over six digits on the odometer, and isn’t nearly as appealing. It’s unclear if this Redditor just got a particularly good deal, or if Hertz is just trying to sell everything not nailed down before the end of the calendar year."
I mean, if this is what the article is predicated on... seems weakly reported, lets just say.
Compared to over 7,000 Toyotas.
And the Teslas aren't particularly aggressively priced. Which makes me question the validity of this entire article.
I wouldn’t mind renting an EV, I’ve done it. But that’s because I’m an owner. I wouldn’t expect any random ICE owner to be ready to just accept one.
But from talking to my local Hertz (I asked him about this when I had to rent from them last year) basically no one in my area wants them. I assume very few of their customers are existing owners.
On top of that I know that they’ve had big problems because even though they’re saving a ton of normal maintenance the cost of scratch and dent/fender bender stuff is way higher than expected since only Tesla sells Tesla parts. Makes me think going with another brand would’ve been smarter on this specific point.
There’s of course anti anti-EV sentiment out there combined with anti-Musk stuff now. There’s no way that’s helping.
I think renting EVs is a good idea. I understand they chose Tesla both because they have the volume and the charging network. But I think that bit them on repairs and sentiment.
Mostly I think they were just a couple years too early. I think they thought the market would move faster than it has. I thought it would.
Once more drivers are used to EVs a lot of the problems go away. Then all your left with is charging and repair costs, both fully solvable.
This is exactly the problem. They do zero education of substance to help a non-EV driver get used to the experience. If I wasn’t already an experienced EV driver (or intentionally using the rental as an extended test drive), I’d be super pissed personally as they really leave you hanging.
- Tesla themselves do this. If you book a test drive, you'll get emails where they tell you to watch a list of Youtube videos on how to handle the car. Nothing more will be done once you show up to do it - you'll do a little paperwork, you'll be guided onto the lot and maybe shown how to shift into D.
Same procedure when you buy one (source: i did) - paperwork, here's your keycards, follow me onto the lot, mount license plate, bye!
I mean - i get it, i neither want nor need a flower bouquet, a ceremony and some champagne when getting handed the keys to my new car - but something in between?!
- Other car rentals do it as well. We rented some Iveco van to move furniture from Europcar lately.
Paperwork, here's your key, this is the generic direction the van is. Enter van, be surprised it's automatic, start it up, shift into D, be even more surprised it has a second parking brake. Driving to the destination, another surprise: the car only goes up to 96km/h, no limiter seems to be active. Discover by accident that theres two driving modes: Eco and Power - switch to Power and you can drive faster facepalm.
They offered to do way more for me, I politely declined.
> Tesla themselves do this. If you book a test drive, you'll get emails where they tell you to watch a list of Youtube videos on how to handle the car.
This is different though, you intentionally went in to drive a Tesla, that puts more onus on you. You didn’t go to pick up a Mazda and then got switched to a Tesla as an “upgrade.”
> Other car rentals do it as well.
I had the same thought and have used that point in debates in the past on this topic. For some reason, electric is different to people and they just won’t accept logic and reason. What’s different about getting a Tesla when expecting a Taurus vs getting a manual transmission diesel U-Haul truck when expecting automatic and gasoline?
This would be Hertz selling cars. Even if they later mistakenly reported them as stolen the buyer should not be at risk of jail because the car would be registered to the buyer in the state's records.
If Hertz botches it so badly that the state paperwork cannot be correctly filed you will find that out shortly after buying the car and can get it corrected.
It shouldn't even get as far as the prosecutors. 5 mins of policework should get to the bottom of the matter.
The only good thing about Teslas from Hertz is that there aren't any third party parts to cheap out on, but I still wouldn't trust a Tesla that was maintained by Hertz.
But the interior build and the touchpad interface mean it'll never be a top choice. It's just awful.
I think they were just too early in trying to put a lot of them in the standard rotation.
But I agree with the basic idea that specialty vehicles need to be in a separate category.
It will be a little more like manual versus automatic used to be. Anyone can drive an automatic, but some people can only drive an automatic.
But if you don’t give EVs to people charged and there aren’t enough chargers around then even people who would otherwise take them (owners + the curious) will avoid them.
You’re not stuck with Tesla chargers. But they’re kind of neat because you only need to authenticate once, and not on every charge.
The rest of the criticism, I believe, applies to EVs in general.
Sitting on a Mercedes CLA is much more comfortable than any Tesla around US$ 45k. It becomes even more disparaging when you go higher on price, a Tesla Model S at US$ 73k interior looks dreadful compared to any Volvo/Audi/Mercedes/BMW at the same price.
It's not even a nice looking minimalism, it's just spartan and cheap looking/feeling.
Base/rental trim -A and -B Benz interiors are terrible (in the US). Hard seats, plastic everywhere, shit tier center LCDs; list goes on. Civics are better.
I agree that the Model S interior falls short of most cars in its price range, though.
I ride in Teslas cabs quite often here in Stockholm and they are comfortable but not at all what I'd expect from a high-end interior, the Mercedes, Lexus, Volvo, and similar cabs here look much better inside than any of the Teslas I got so far (Model S/Model Y).
The A and B trims in the US are the lowest tiers that Mercedes-Benz offers and are spartan, but tacky.
Tesla’s high-end cars don’t have high-end cabins; we agree there.
In the recent past, a Model S with FSD was $143k for the Plaid trim. This was comparable in price to a Benz S550 or a BMW 750i, both of which have incredible, incredible interiors. Super plush, real leather seats; rare wood grain everywhere; customization to no end; coffin-quiet cabins; plush air suspension; etc.
That’s before taking the dealer experience into account. I don’t have experience with Benz dealers, but my understanding of them is that they are actually worth spending time in, and they take care of you when things go wrong (loaners of equivalent trim or just below; great coffee; clean centers; etc.)
Meanwhile, both Teslas offer cabins that I’d say are beneath what you’d get from a maxed-out Honda Accord. I have two Model 3s (old and new designs) and have rented the S a few times now, and I love Teslas, for what that’s worth.
Mobile service kicks ass, but if you need to bring the thing in for service, you’re probably looking at Uber credits. Shameful for the price.
Technology was the only thing the Tesla had the upper hand in.
Besides the Tesla business model being, essentially, a huge flex from previous leadership that Elon and team were happy to enable, there were always numerous problems with renting Teslas at scale:
1. The experience of using a Tesla is unlike any other car out there. No other car lacks an engine/HVDC start button, for example. This hurt Hertz in both directions: time-stressed business travelers (many of whom don't have EVs at home) get fed up with trying to get them out of the parking lot (where a surprisingly high number of accidents involving Teslas have occurred), and leisure travelers who _do_ have time struggle to operate the car during their trip.
2. Charging. Everything about charging frustrates renters. Finding superchargers. Waiting 20+ minutes to charge, regardless of what's in the vicinity. (Many superchargers, especially in small markets, are behind malls.) Dealing with non-Tesla networks. (You don't need an app and an account to gas up an ICE vehicle.) Charging at scale is much better than it was when Hertz doubled down on this in 2022 but just isn't there yet.
2b. Many Hertz centers (including airport-attached ones!) didn't have charging infrastructure of their own. This was extremely problematic when a time-stressed renter decides to one-way their car to some other center with this predicament. Those EVs are either taken out of rotation for the day, which is extremely suboptimal, or, worse, are rented out at whatever state of charge they have. I've been assigned cars with a 2% SoC before. This is no big deal for me if there's a charging center nearby, but a renter who is IDGAF about their car (many/most business travelers) will take that sucker out of the lot and be calling roadside in an hour because their car died. This would never happen with a n ICE (since most people know how gas gauges work).
3. Repairing Teslas at the speeds that rental car companies require isn't possible without extra staff and a Tesla Service Center nearby. Tesla is Apple-like in their parts inventory. IIRC, You need to be a Tesla-approved service center to order parts from them. Once you do get the parts, (1) of my list applies again. EVs from legacy OEMs don't have this problem, but you still need techs who are certified in handling HV and EV drivetrains to work on them. That costs money, and car rental companies operate on razor thin margins.
The saddest thing about all of this is that Tesla wrote a really cool adapter for their car key auth flow that enabled Hertz renters to add the car to the Tesla app during their rental. The card key wasn't required when this was done. This was ONLY added to Hertz vehicles. I don't think Tesla intends on extending this to the rest of the fleet.
I primarily rent with Avis (who, unlike Hertz, still has a reasonably sized EV fleet). Having to use the card key for everything is annoying, especially in cold weather climates.
Which brings me to my last point. Hertz is divesting ALL of their EVs, not just their Tesla ones. It used to be stupidly easy to rent an EV with Hertz. These days, you'll be lucky to rent an EV with them at even their largest centers.
That said, assuming this next administration at least tries to continue subsidizing national charging networks and EV production (unlikely, especially if their EV or bust by 2030 mandate is rolled back), I hope that Hertz and others revisit EVs at scale in the future.
Remember when Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm?