I rented a bunch of EVs so you don’t have to
TLDR; Rent a bunch of different EVs before buying one.
These are observations from recent Hertz EV rentals with 4 different cars: Tesla Model 3, Kia EV6, Chevy Bolt EUV and a Polestar model 2.
While was not intending to rent an EV specifically, Hertz was in the middle of their EV experiment and the offers were persuasively cheap, like $100 for a week’s rental. We had vaguely discussed EVs and our intention (not well articulated at this stage) was to buy an EV as our trusty Toyota Camry headed into quarter-million-mile territory. We knew nothing about life with an EV. We were in the same boat as I’m guessing the vast majority of us are — we had a vague idea that there would be an EV in our future, probably.
What we didn’t know was that life with an EV is nothing like life with a gas-powered car. It is totally different. I don’t mean the process of sitting down in a metal box, pushing a pedal and pointing the thing in the direction you’re going. I’m talking about the part where you own it and do the things you need to do to get it going, like charging and planning your trips.
For starters, charging is neither as easy nor as difficult as you might imagine. It’s easier because you just plug the thing in. No possibility of accidentally putting in diesel, no octane choices. Of course you have to have the right connector, so that’s a tick mark in the “difficult” column. It’s also difficult because you have to find a charging station and you have to sit there while it charges, unless (and this is a key point) you can charge at home, in which case everything suddenly becomes stupidly easy.
During the rental process, we learned a couple of things and honestly, we’re smarter buyers — armed with this knowledge we’ll be much better prepared.
Rental process and operational observations
Charge state both initial and upon return. The rental locations did not have nearby fast chargers, which meant they had to accept returns with low charge state. Contrast with the "buy a free tank of gas for $++" scheme for ICE. Also, most return locations I've been to had a gas station a block away, but none had a fast charger anywhere near the lot.
Inferring relative model reliability from POO. Many vehicles in lot with POO (Parts On Order) signs on roof, seemed to be a lot of M3s, but sample size of 1 rental experience, so make of that what you will.
No instructions. We got the barest minimum of guidance on how to operate the car from lot attendants. For us as EV first-timers, it took a couple of hours to work out how the cars even worked, and we'd already done some test drives. Bordering on an unsafe practice, IMO. The Polestar, for example, had a completely counter-intuitive mode of shifting into drive, unlike any of the other cars. The other vehicles generally adhered to the idiom of “Press some button that says Turn Car On”, then shift some lever from Park to Drive.
No setting of expectations with respect to home charging. We came to learn that the one thing that makes sense is overnight charging at home. Fast chargers are rare and crowded. It quickly became clear that the fast charger is an emergency option, not the way you charge your car every day. Car rental people are stuck in the gas station mindset. It makes no sense to force people to go and find the equivalent of EV gas stations. Fast chargers are rare, located in weird places and frequently unsafe for individuals, both women and men. Instead of just dumping unsuspecting renters into this universe, Hertz should provide people equipment they can use to plug their cars in at home where the cars can just quietly fill themselves up overnight. Sure you only get twenty miles on an overnight charge, but at least people should be told that ahead of time.
Fast charger community experiences
Fast charger courtesy is all over the place. Of the four fast chargers (EVGo, EA) in our area, there were always ~25% of the outlets unavailable for various reasons.
The crowd at the fast chargers was generally genial and supportive, with waiting drivers helping the novices out when they couldn't get the charging to start. This is not universal however -- while waiting, we heard several stories of a-holes just pushing in.
The fast charger locations have no notion of there ever being a queue. Waiting times can run into hours and people are very nervous about leaving one location for another, especially with a low charge state. This further exacerbates the problems with bad actors. Look for news articles about guns being brandished (if not actually used) at crowded fast chargers.
Just as with the early days of cellphones in public places, we are evolving a code of conduct for fast chargers and it's painful right now. For installers of fast chargers, consider providing some kind of queueing lane, making it explicit that there's a FIFO-style prioritization.
Some indication of the wait queue would also be useful. If there's a 4-station fast charger nearby with a queue depth of 1, that's ok, I'll go there, but if there's a queue depth of 5, I'll drive another ten minutes in the other direction.
Car control UX dissonances
Every car is different. Massively different, with serious personality traits that are just not present in ICE rentals. Take an ICE and all you have to do is adjust the seat, mirrors and climate and off you go. Just getting the EV into reverse to back out of the stall was weird and different each time. Tesla wants to make its own decisions about when to use the wipers, FFS.
Polestar has no way to dim the console and no CarPlay support.
Polestar’s climate control is all over the map. Even with two of us, we could not get the defroster to work. It could just been broken I suppose.
Tesla inductive charging was a significant positive. A friend got into the car, put his phone down and nearly jumped out of his seat when it just started charging.
The Polestar has an absolutely brain-dead "feature" where you can drag a slider to control the max charge you want, which is theoretically useful if you're at a busy charger and you only need 30% to get you home where you'll continue to charge at your L2 overnight, but there's no confirmation. I accidentally dragged the slider to 40% (because touch-screen) and then I couldn't work out why I couldn't get more than 40% charge. No feedback from the charge station ("Your vehicle has a pre-set charge maximum") and no feedback from the car ("Are you sure you only want 40% charge?"). Complete UX failure.