Hertz put a first-time EV driver in a Tesla that was half dead, then tried to hold her financially accountable for getting stranded on the side of the road.
Now that EVs are filling out rental fleets around the U.S., drivers are going through an adjustment period full of hazards and inconveniences. A mother and daughter from Gurnee, Illinois, became trapped inside of a Tesla from Hertz, which the company rented out to them in lieu of an ICE-equipped sedan the woman had reserved in advance. After the dead Tesla stranded them, Hertz tried to put the woman on a do-not-rent list, despite being responsible for much of the trouble, as the woman tells CBS News.
When Becky Liebau and her daughter arrived to the Hertz counter, they were told the only car left on the rental lot was a Tesla. Liebau had never driven an EV; she had booked a reservation for a gas-powered car, but rental companies are notorious for taking reservations though not holding onto them. According to Liebau, this was around closing time and she had no other choice but to take the Tesla, which appears to have been a Model 3 based on the CBS report:
Disaster ensued for the mother and daughter, who had booked the trip to scope out prospective colleges for the 16-year old scholar. We could easily say this was due to driver error, but it’s not that simple. User error figures into the problems that left the woman and teenager stranded, but the onus rests on Hertz now that it’s bolstered its rental fleet with over 50,000 EVs. Especially when dealing with first-time EV drivers like Liebau.
And it’s not like it was for lack of trying on the part of the mother and daughter. Liebau says her daughter tried getting up to speed on the Tesla EV, going on the internet to learn how to to operate the fully-electric car.
Hertz had given the pair an EV that was reportedly under 50 percent state of charge. The Tesla showed approximately 90 miles of range left, which may have been enough to get Liebau and her daughter to a charger. Hertz, however, did not provide them with an adapter to use charging stations that don’t conform to Tesla’s charging standard. Hertz later suggested these adapters are often targeted by thieves. It’s hard to see why that matters, or why Hertz would mention this — other than to suggest it was acting in its own best interest.
The Tesla’s tires were also low on air and would have benefitted from a top up. What Hertz basically did was hand Liebau the keys to a less than half-charged EV with low tire pressure and a missing adapter for use at nearby chargers. The Tesla went dead as Liebau searched for a charging station, trapping the two inside the cabin. Liebau and her daughter had no idea how to get out of the dead EV, and their phones were running out of battery, too. Again, that’s user error, but no one at Hertz explained the proper procedures to Liebau.
No roadside assistance came from Hertz. The two were eventually towed by a driver they had tracked down on their own, who taught them to override the electric door locks. They were taken to a hotel nearby, and had to pay one of the maintenance workers there for a ride across the state.
Presumably, back to their home. A hefty bill was waiting for them, as Hertz tried to pin the blame on Liebau. She refused to pay the invoices, and the company put her on a do-not-rent list. Hertz only happened to reverse course after CBS investigators reached out to the company. CBS says that Hertz has now refunded all charges and has reimbursed Liebau for the expenses she incurred.
A few months ago I made a reservation to rent a car with hertz. When I showed up, the only available car was a mostly dead EV. I’m glad I did a little research before agreeing to it because I would have had to go way out of my way to charge it, and the charging process would have taken HOURS to achieve the charge I needed for my trip.
I’m pro-EV in general but rental companies shouldn’t be offering them in their current state imo
I think offering them is fine, provided it has 100% charge and the expected travel is less than the available range.
I see people post this, and honestly it’s usually just not true. It is entirely a lack of understanding and/or education and just assuming you need to treat it like your gas vehicle. Which isn’t unexpected of course, it’s just that fully charging is not necessary in an EV and will just waste your time. Now I’m not saying that the car battery would not take hours to fully charge, that is true… It does take a very long time to take a car battery from 0 to 100%… but you just don’t need to fully charge most of the time. Especially if you’re driving a longer distance.
Fully charging Lithium-Ion batteries actually damages the battery a LOT more than partial charges do, just like on your phone. And charging at a low state of charge is a lot faster than when the battery is nearly full. They’re both using Li-Ion batteries after all. It is actually quite fast to charge from say 20% to 60% on a DC fast charger or Tesla Supercharger. You don’t need to fully charge every time you plug in, on a trip you only need to charge enough to make the next leg of the journey.
In most EVs, you just enter your destination in the navigation and it will take into account your charge level and automatically include needed charging stops along the way. I can tell you from personal experience that in a Tesla, most of my stops during longer trips are no more than 15 minutes long because of how the fast chargers are spaced out. That 15 minutes usually will shove about 50% charge into the battery via a Supercharger. It will have you arrive at the charger with as little charge as possible on purpose because a lower state of charge means power can be sent to the battery faster (within reason, it tries to leave about 20% as a safety buffer). Unless you’re driving to a very remote location, you’re probably pretty close to a charger at any given time.
A screenshot of Tesla’s current US charging map for an example](https://i.imgur.com/xMrkhMT.png)/. You can check their website if you want to look at your area to see. Destination chargers are located at places like malls, hotels, etc. and are usually an amenity for guests to help charge slowly overnight or while shopping. Superchargers on the other hand will shove power into the pack to charge as fast as possible and get you on the way.
You forgot to start your post with “well actually”
Sorry for the contribution to a discussion and including personal experience directly related to the topic being discussed.
I’ll let you all get back to your circlejerk. Make sure to thank your partner.
People shouldn’t need to know the ins and outs of charging a half full EV when they rent a car for a short trip.
You don’t need to, you can ignore all that. The car will tell you where the closest charger is. You just have to tap the button and it will take you there. You can treat it like a regular gas car, you just may be wasting time by doing so and charging to 100% all the time.
That map shows that you’re severely fucked in huge parts of the country. Are you sure that’s what you wanted to show?
Thank you for that added detail.
I think that actually reinforces my point about rentals though- I’m a relatively tech savvy individual and I didn’t know much of that, and would have been unlikely to be able to easy learn that information in an environment/situation such as “need a rental car now”.