When I am in an unfamiliar city or location, it is stressful enough just figuring out the traffic patterns and how to get around. Last thing I want to do is add to that stress by worrying about where I am going to find EV chargers.
Just a stupid idea.
I agree with you about renting EVs.
I did rent a hybrid last year and it was very nice.
“I arrived at a destination and EVs was all that Hertz had in inventory, I’d make a beeline over to the Avis counter.”
My daughter went to Houston on a business trip and Hertz did not have the rental she reserved. They only had full-size vans or a huge selection of EVs.
She was not as wise as you and tried out an EV. Her trip was a disaster as she spent her off work hours searching for chargers that were available and working.
It seems that most of the available chargers were not working. There will not be an EV of any kind in her future.
I travel for my business all the time and by far HERTZ is the cheapest rentals if you use a LLC or C Corp TIN number. You can get a Model S Tesla for under $20 a day always under $30 a day. I routinely rent EVs in Houston,Austin, San Antonio,New Orleans, Las Vegas, Denver,LA, Seattle and San Diego.
Never once has charging been an issue not a single time in well over 25 rentals in the last few years. Not one of those cities is more than 60 miles across it you could go back and forth the entire city 6 times in a Model S and still have range left. How many times in a day has anyone on a work trip gone across a city and back once maybe six times I think not. The avg trip distance round trip for inside a city is under 30 miles the NHTSA keeps track of.those numbers 96% of all trips are under 30 miles round trip. A model S can make 15 days worth of trips at that average. Most of the time when I rent a Tesla it comes 100% capacity and I pay the “fuel fee” to bring it back at near zero charge 10% or so. Even if my hotel or airbnb doesn’t have a L2 on site in a week I’ll only put a few hundred miles on the rental going out for lunches,dinners and driving to nightlife spots a lot of times I never need a charge at all.
Most four and all five star hotels I have ever stayed at the valet service will plug your car into at least a L2 charger over night if not a supercharger. Every Harrah,Caesars property has this standard valet service with platinum or above memberships.
With a $16 dollar adapter from Amazon you can plug CCS1 50kw-250kw and 240v/80amp J1772 plugs into the Tesla port that opens every charger in North America to a Tesla. The cities are blanketed with chargers every one is open to a Tesla with a CCS/1772 adapter it was a no brainer to buy one from Amazon for less than half what I typically spend on a scotch on the rocks.
Zoom into any one of those cities you will see they are blanketed with chargers. Filter to 50kw or above and still blanketed 50kw puts 200 miles in a hour back in a Tesla slightly less as recharge slows down from 80% to 100% which I have never needed to go above 80% at a fast DC charger. Given that the next fast DC will be under 50 miles away and 80% in a Model S is 300+ miles my bladder demands a 3 hour 200 ish mile stop regardless of if the car needs it.
I have rented a Tesla in New Orleans and drove it as far as Pensacola then back to Houston and then to DFW at no point was finding a 100-250kw charger a issue or more than 100 miles in any direction down a interstate. In Texas SC are every 50 miles or less look at all the red dots on the link below those are Tesla chargers and most of them are supercharger or 240v/80/60amp designation chargers. Point is charging is a mine issue on work trips and even taking a rental on a 1800+ mile road trip proved to be easy with a Tesla and it’s onboard tech.
https://chargefinder.com/us/search