Posted on 11/03/2023 7:31:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As far as Teslas go the onboard navigation computer thingamabob will show a map of Tesla charging station. It will alert you when you need to charge and if you are driving distances and use the GPS it will tell you optimal times to charge and where to go (I honestly don’t know if they will show you non-Tesla stations). You basically want to charge it when it is under 10% and fill it up to 80%. That last 20% to get to full charge takes as long as it does to go from 10% to 80%.
I think most car rentals are business related. At least they used to be. In those cases you probably get the car fully charged and can return it without using the 250 miles or whatever range. And most decent hotels do have charging stations these days. I wonder if you have to return it fully charged, though?
The thing about repair costs is probably a function of Tesla’s near monopoly. They control all the parts and maybe doing repairs on the fly at any third party site is not feasible or permitted.
Yes it seems like a bit of virtue signaling by Hertz that had to be clawed back due to real world practicality. The EV car market has run a little too far ahead of the infrastructure to charge and maintain the vehicles. For most consumers it may not be a problem. Even if their daily commute was 100 miles each way, the range is sufficient and the car can charge overnight at home, or possibly at work. Most people can probably get a week from a full charge so it’s not an issue for them. They can charge at home or at a mall or school. Where I live I commute 2 miles to work and I see at least 10 Teslas (probably more) each way. They are everywhere here in SoCal.
The problem is when people do long distance driving or lots of running around town. I’ve seen pictures of holiday weekend traffic jams at Tesla stations up the California coast and I5 fwy. It takes 30-40 minutes, or up to an hour if you insist on getting to full charge and that’s using the biggest wire. There are simply a lot more gas stations than charging stations, and gas stations get you topped off in a few minutes. However, Charging stations need less footprint and less overhead and lower construction costs this should change if the EV market continues to expand. You’ll see more of them, and they’ll pop up in locations like large strip malls with ample parking. Just drop in the wire and 6-10 chargers it’s really not a space constraint. And merchants, eateries (mall owners etc) have some incentive to attract people there by adding chargers. They probably don’t even have to go out of pocket - chargeAmerica or Tesla would probably cover the costs in return for the revenue. You just need to designate some parking spaces.
Generally even long distance drivers will want to stop and eat or stretch out for 30 minutes every 3-4 hours or so. That would be the time to charge and locations with chargers and amenities (restaurants, parks, scenic stops etc) could easily fill that need. Personally I’m not inclined to go electric right now, but the market can and should sort these things out. That said there are many pundits who think the market for EVs is near fully tapped. The prices have indeed been dropping a lot. For a company like Hertz that’s a problem if they booked the car value at $50k and figured on 50% depreciation in 3 years (random numbers) but in 3 years a similar new car sells for $35,000 they have to write down maybe $10k per car.
It is truly sad when one of these “Woke” idiot CEOs realizes that he is a total chump. Hey Chicken Little, the sky is falling.
“Perhaps they should design the batteries to be more modular. That way they wouldn’t have to replace the entire battery pack for a ding.”
Issue has been covered many times here. Increased weight, space and electrical resistance / loss of power to heat and decreased reliability of connectors is why that won’t happen.
I would drive and the fact that the family we were visiting did not have a convenient charger in their home nor nearby.
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If you were visiting my family for an overnight stay, I would ask you to park your rented electric down the street a ways, a coupla blocks should do it.
Hertz announced about a year ago they were going to purchase 175K GM EVs over the next 5 years. I haven’t seen anything yet about a change in plans since the recent announced slow down of EV production..
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