I have recently experienced several suboptimal car rentals which I’ve written about in this series. While traveling this week, I booked a rental car with Budget. The best deals were with electric vehicles (EVs), and given that I am comfortable with driving EVs and charging EVs at the company apartment, I chose an EV.
Upon vehicle pickup, I learned that Budget no longer provides charging cables. However, I discovered this in a circuitous manner. I recalled a prior experience in which I was given an EV with a low battery and without a charging cable. Therefore, I made sure to search my rental car for a charging cable—it didn’t have one. So I went back to the rental counter, and they assigned a different EV to me—that one didn’t have a charging cable either. I was then told by the manager that Budget no longer provides charging cables “because people steal them”. For context, not all car rental companies have this policy. Just last week, a co-worker rented an EV from another company, and it provided a charging cable.
When I rent EVs for my business trips to company headquarters, I always charge them at the company apartment which has electrical outlets in the 2-car garage, and for that I need a charging cable. The great benefit is that no time is lost by simply plugging in the car at the apartment. The alternative is to charge the vehicle at a public charging station which is undesirable for me because a typical level 2 public charger can take several hours to charge an EV from 50% to 80% capacity. So if a car rental company does not provide a charging cable along with an EV rental, that significantly worsens the customer experience.
I ended up switching from an EV to a hybrid vehicle, and I had a flawless experience with it. That being said, I have a few recommendations to all car rental companies who rent EVs to their customers.
First, car rental companies have a responsibility provide charging cables with EV rentals. Not every customer is willing or able to spend hours of precious time at a charging station. Business travelers are busy. Leisure travelers want to maximize their time on vacation. Nobody wants to use a public charging station unless it is their last option. Plugging an EV into a standard outlet is much slower than a level 2 charging station, but if it can be left unattended (e.g., while sleeping), the convenience far outweighs the slower charging speed. A charging cable should be considered a standard item included in an EV rental.
Second, charge the customer if they do not return the charging cable. If a customer borrows a GPS or a child car seat and fails to return it, then I assume the customer would be charged for those items. A car rental company should do the same for charging cables, and I would completely understand if the replacement fee for a charging cable exceeded the cost of a brand new charging cable because of the effort that must be taken to manage an inventory of charging cables. Furthermore, car rental companies already place a temporary charge on the customer’s credit card (Budget charged me $250 for this week’s rental), so they are already pre-authorized to charge fees for lost or stolen charging cables.
Third, charge the EV to 80% before letting a customer borrow it. This is a common customer expectation. It is also a common expectation that vehicles are adequately prepared for rental. The tire pressure should be adequate, the headlights should be working, none of the warning lights should be flashing, and the vehicle should be free of trash from the prior rental. Most car rental companies that I’ve used also require that the car be returned with at least 70% (or similar) charge, or a fee will be incurred (similar to a refueling fee for gas vehicles). On the flip side, car rental companies have a duty to provide customers with EVs whose batteries are 70-80% charged.
If a rental company cannot support EV rentals with the same level of convenience and preparedness that customers expect from gasoline vehicles, it shouldn’t offer them.
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