Btw why is Hertz a bellwether for fucking anything
efisk666 on
Most amazing quote to me is this: “The stock has dropped almost 56% this year, bringing its market capitalization down to $1.38 billion.”
Is that all because of this failed bet on electric cars?
Bovey on
It seems to me that EVs make the most sense for short trips, like to and from work or other errands around town, with time to charge between trips and well-know places to do so. I also expect there is a bit of a learning curve for anyone who is only familiar with gas powered vehicies (i.e. charging vs fueling).
Given all that, it doensn’t seem like a rental car company is a particularly good use-case for early EV adoption. In fact, with variable and generally unpredictable driving needs of rental customers, potential unfamilarity of the area in which they may be driving and the local EV infrastructure, and the fact that *most* of them are likely to be unfamiliar with EV driving and charging in general, it kind of seem like an espeically bad use-case.
I guess kudos to Hertz for wanting to do something good, but as a business decision going big on EV doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Especially when you consider that the biggest economic benefits of a EV come in the form of reduced “fuel” costs, which rental companies pass off *entirely* to the customers, and at the expense of a higher up-front cost for the vehicles.
davidasc22 on
It’s funny how we keep talking about Hertz, who made a bad bet with bad terms.
*Many renters were unfamiliar with how to charge or otherwise properly use an EV, but chose to do so anyway because of what was available, West told analysts on an earnings call Thursday.*
Ultimately, we’re entirely too early for a massive number of EVs at rental car companies. I’m not saying people are stupid, but most people have low bandwidth for learning, especially as adults. Most people don’t want to learn something new unless they have to.
I work in IT and I’ve seen people struggle from going to on-prem share drives to sharepoint online/Office 365, even with the desktop options. I’ve seen people struggle to go from Microsoft Office to Google Workspace. I’ve seen complaints in both situations. I’ve even seen people complain about going from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook.
People don’t like change and change needs to be carefully managed. Hertz didn’t do that here. They were reckless. They didn’t train their staff so that they could in turn train customers. They made deals with Tesla and Uber, but they didn’t require training for the drivers and they didn’t have a Enterprise service agreement for maintenance with Tesla. They just jumped in and hoped everything would work out because the vehicles are cheaper to maintain (not if people don’t know how to one pedal drive and get into more accidents as a result, not if people abuse the acceleration that comes with driving an EV and get into more accidents).
If a renter is in an area foreign to them and needs to plot out charing and has never done it, it’s going to be a bad experience. If you demand that they return the vehicle with a full charge, that’s probably going to be a bad experience. If the cost of renting an EV is sky high, that’s probably going to be a bad experience. I just looked at what Enterprise is charging for a week with a Polestar 2 and it was like 1200 dollars… That’s madness.
You could probably start an EV-only rental company with a managble fleet of EVs and tailor it to EV customers, particularly those waiting on getting their own EVs back from accidents/major repairs. Positioning locations around areas that have the highest concentration of EVs and EV chargers. These wouldn’t be for long distances but day to day driving, but marketing an EV as a road trip vehicle for example without explaining anything to anyone… yeah, I’m sure that will end well.
4 Comments
Btw why is Hertz a bellwether for fucking anything
Most amazing quote to me is this: “The stock has dropped almost 56% this year, bringing its market capitalization down to $1.38 billion.”
Is that all because of this failed bet on electric cars?
It seems to me that EVs make the most sense for short trips, like to and from work or other errands around town, with time to charge between trips and well-know places to do so. I also expect there is a bit of a learning curve for anyone who is only familiar with gas powered vehicies (i.e. charging vs fueling).
Given all that, it doensn’t seem like a rental car company is a particularly good use-case for early EV adoption. In fact, with variable and generally unpredictable driving needs of rental customers, potential unfamilarity of the area in which they may be driving and the local EV infrastructure, and the fact that *most* of them are likely to be unfamiliar with EV driving and charging in general, it kind of seem like an espeically bad use-case.
I guess kudos to Hertz for wanting to do something good, but as a business decision going big on EV doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Especially when you consider that the biggest economic benefits of a EV come in the form of reduced “fuel” costs, which rental companies pass off *entirely* to the customers, and at the expense of a higher up-front cost for the vehicles.
It’s funny how we keep talking about Hertz, who made a bad bet with bad terms.
*Many renters were unfamiliar with how to charge or otherwise properly use an EV, but chose to do so anyway because of what was available, West told analysts on an earnings call Thursday.*
Ultimately, we’re entirely too early for a massive number of EVs at rental car companies. I’m not saying people are stupid, but most people have low bandwidth for learning, especially as adults. Most people don’t want to learn something new unless they have to.
I work in IT and I’ve seen people struggle from going to on-prem share drives to sharepoint online/Office 365, even with the desktop options. I’ve seen people struggle to go from Microsoft Office to Google Workspace. I’ve seen complaints in both situations. I’ve even seen people complain about going from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook.
People don’t like change and change needs to be carefully managed. Hertz didn’t do that here. They were reckless. They didn’t train their staff so that they could in turn train customers. They made deals with Tesla and Uber, but they didn’t require training for the drivers and they didn’t have a Enterprise service agreement for maintenance with Tesla. They just jumped in and hoped everything would work out because the vehicles are cheaper to maintain (not if people don’t know how to one pedal drive and get into more accidents as a result, not if people abuse the acceleration that comes with driving an EV and get into more accidents).
If a renter is in an area foreign to them and needs to plot out charing and has never done it, it’s going to be a bad experience. If you demand that they return the vehicle with a full charge, that’s probably going to be a bad experience. If the cost of renting an EV is sky high, that’s probably going to be a bad experience. I just looked at what Enterprise is charging for a week with a Polestar 2 and it was like 1200 dollars… That’s madness.
You could probably start an EV-only rental company with a managble fleet of EVs and tailor it to EV customers, particularly those waiting on getting their own EVs back from accidents/major repairs. Positioning locations around areas that have the highest concentration of EVs and EV chargers. These wouldn’t be for long distances but day to day driving, but marketing an EV as a road trip vehicle for example without explaining anything to anyone… yeah, I’m sure that will end well.