* i rented got a Jeep Wrangler once as rental and it was not comfortable whatsoever for 4 hrs of highway driving.
* I rented a Dodge SRT and it got terrible fuel mileage in city and was loud.
* I rented a RWD SUV and it was terrible in snow.
* OP rented a slow charging EV that was empty and got stuck charging it forever.
Common theme, wrong vehicle for application.
IMO these are apples and oranges. Lots of vehicles are uncomfortable, inefficient, and/or bad in snow. Many aren’t. Any of these could be the case for an EV or an ICE.
The issue isn’t really that Hertz messed up, though that’s an observation of an endemic issue. It’s also not the availability of chargers. There are plenty.
It’s really the impracticality of charging an EV on a trip. Yes, absolutely, lots of issues compiled on me last night which is why it was an interesting case study.
If the car was fully charged things would have been easier, but I’d still have many of the issues. And the low power (talking 5-10kW, which I think is all that anyone’s home charger will do) is pretty worthless for scenarios like this. Almost as worthless as a 120v charger.
Couple the impracticality of charging on the road, and the limited range, and it’s just not a good vehicle choice for real utility. Don’t get me wrong, I would consider buying one for other reasons. But I wouldn’t give up an ICE. And that’s really why I’m also very pro PHEV.
I'm guessing that it probably would have been OK had it been charged to a reasonably high level.
But absolutely this was unfair to the OP but hardly a sign that EVs aren't ready for rental use. The Bolt was meant to be a smaller, entry level EV that gives up some range and charging speed for affordability.
Not sure I agree. I’ve been inconvenienced with high speed Tesla chargers elsewhere. I’ve found that supercharging costs more per mile than our odyssey. Even last night ai paid 48c/kWh at the fast charger, 30c/kWh on the overnight one (plus $5/hr!)
That’s expensive for a substandard charge.
It also shows to me that destination chargers are almost worthless. A 5kW destination charter for an hour does almost nothing. Plug it in for a few minutes at a store? Might as well not.
And it isn’t the vehicle really other than that it left me high and dry for finding chargers. The audio in it for example is great. I was really impressed how Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia” sounded on XM. The controls and operation are superior to Tesla.
They’re just all too slow charging to practically use like this.