I've rented Model 3s twice on Turo. The first time I recharged at a Supercharger a couple of miles from my hotel at the end of the day on my way back to my hotel. The second time I said the fee not to recharge. I think it was around $35.
Absolutely! EVs are different. They shouldn't be treated the same as gasoline cars. The policies seem to have improved but they can do better. They don't seem to recognize what a convenience it would be to their renters.
A big part of that problem were rideshare drivers who were renting EVs for doing Uber/Lyft. They didn't understand how EVs worked and would drive until low then stop at a charger. They didn't know to navigate to the charge to precondition so they arrived with a low battery temperature requiring delays to warm the battery before charging could start. Many didn't understand this and didn't wait long enough. This was compounded by most of the rideshare rental fleet being LFP batteries which perform worse than NMC in very cold temperatures and that they'd try to charge to 100% which was countereproductive.
I own two Mazda3s, in addition to my Model 3. The kids drive the Mazdas. In the past 3yr 4mo, I've driven an ICE car exactly once, one of my Mazdas, and it felt like something was wrong with it! In that time, I've taken my car to a public charger (EV gas station) exactly twice and gone to a real gas station exactly zero times. I won't rent an ICE car again unless there are no other options.
L1 is actually enough for a surprisingly large number of people. L1 would provide around 20,000mi of range per year if plugged in continuously, far more than most drive. 12 hours of charging per day would be about 275 miles per week which is still more than average mileage.
I doubt many get up at 3am to move their car. Nor are there many looking to start charging at 3am.
Why did you treat the car like a gasoline car to get into that situation?
The Tesla app allows you to monitor the charging remotely, and then warns you when it's done that you need to disconnect or you'll be charged (monetarily, no pun intended) for tying up the charger. I have no idea if they actually do that when other stations are available, and would like to hear from tesla owners here if they do. I was too scared/ cheap to find out, so both times I got up from dinner and went to move the car, which admittedly was annoying. I kind of wished it took longer to charge in those instances.
Electrify America will charge a decent amount/hr after a grace period if the car is full, even if a spot next to it is available.
Idle fees usually apply to DC Fast Chargers and can apply to Level 2 chargers, though those are less frequent.
I think there is more to that news story about EVs not charging in Chicago from a couple years ago. Primarily, why aren’t we still hearing these horror stories in Chicago, Milwaukee, Fargo, Minneapolis, Bozeman, etc? Countries like Norway and Sweden have relatively higher rates of EVs and I believe it gets cold there. I continue to see more EVs at ski resorts, it’s generally cold at ski resorts.
What car was that?
One of GM's EV pickups. 210kWh battery, 2.1miles/kWh.
That makes sense. My car gets about 3.8 to 4.0 mi/kWh. I've never owned a pickup so don't have any experience there.
I wonder why they did that.
What's that mean, in plain English?
The same is true of a gas car
There are essentially two charging standards in the US. Tesla's, now called NACS (pronounced 'nacks') and stands for the North American Charging Standard. The second is CCS1 for Combined Charging Standard.
Except an EV will actually brake, without using the friction brakes, and converts some of the car's kinetic energy back into electricity to charge the battery. I don't know of any gasoline cars that can do that.The same is true of a gas car
You need to get off the gas sooner.
Some hotels will have a valet take care of that. Some will have enough chargers for everyone. Others, yes, will have an issue.
Depends on the car and the charger. Tesla has a lit port/logo that will change color when it's done. Some others can lock the cord to the car and then release it when it's done. Some chargers will display the rate at which the car is charging. It's far from a universal thing, though.
For sure. Just be ready to buy one! I gave my wife's colleague a ride in mine, and he ordered one before I even got home from his house - He lives 5 minutes away from us.
Absolutely. Almost any time we go far enough to need to charge away from home, we're taking the airplane anyway.
Even if you do have a physical adapter, unless you have a 2024+ car you can't use the Supercharger network, and most of the 3rd-party adapters out there likewise don't work with Superchargers, just with "destination chargers" (L2).
That's part of the "being educated and prepared beforehand" we were discussing. It's not a hard thing to set up, but it is an extra step that takes several minutes.
Yes. Driving an ICE car after getting used to an EV can be aggravating. A couple of things that have been really annoying: The car sitting there vibrating when I'm at a stop light, and having to stop for gas. People always talk about how "inconvenient" it is to charge, but that's really only on road trips for most people. Meanwhile, the other 50 weeks of the year we leave the house with a full "tank" every day, so being forced to stop for gas is just... Ugh.
Yes! When I had a commute of 78 miles per day, it might have just barely worked in milder weather, but wouldn't have allowed for any other driving by the end of the week without additional charging. However, IIRC 90% of Americans do 35 miles/day or less and L1 will work in those situations.
What are you driving, a tank?!? 
Because it was a bunch of trumped-up hype designed to get clicks, as opposed to an actual problem.
Don't like change or something? Once you learn how to use one they're way more convenient if you have your own garage where you can plug in.
They don't really have any more different quirks across models than gas cars do these days. Weird shifters and other stuff are not an EV phenomenon.
Many pilots can’t handle all of their glass gizmos, either.
I've never seen a gasoline car that can turn the kinetic energy of the car into gasoline in the tank. I once gained 5% points driving down from ~5,000' to ~1,450'. Regen braking is a significant part of an EV's efficiency at around town driving.
Two types, the High Power Wall Connector (HWPC) and the Universal Wall Connector (UWC). (The UWC includes a J1772 adapter for non-NACS cars)
I'm not sure if that's correct. It may be for some brands but I don't think all of them. I checked Ford and there is no model year restriction. They gained access to Tesla's network in early 2024. I believe they were the first.
The problem is when people drive an EV without trying the learn. If you treat an EV like an ICE car you won't have a good experience.
Anyone can refuel any ICE vehicle they rent with zero hassle. Not true of an EV.Don't like change or something? Once you learn how to use one they're way more convenient if you have your own garage where you can plug in.
They don't really have any more different quirks across models than gas cars do these days. Weird shifters and other stuff are not an EV phenomenon.
Who wants to “learn” how to use the rental on a trip? Few go on vacation or a business trip so they can have the pleasure of learning how to live with a new car. Most just want to get around as easily and simply as possible.
That doesn’t change the fact that avoiding the friction brake on a gas car will make it go farther on a tank.
According to at least one EV engineer, max regen coupled with conventional braking gives better range than one-pedal driving. But even so, the difference between one-pedal driving and conventional braking is not that big unless you have regen turned all the way down. Or you are playing stop light drag races, but stuff like that will kill gas mileage too.
Fine, I can't do math.
this is my biggest beef with the new breed of cars, why the helll did they have to mess up the damn dashboard by sticking tvs on TOP. could they not integrate the panels ? why hang A 20 inch monitor off the dash
who said theres learning, you get in the car and drive. they work 95% the same, if you don't want to use regen braking, turn it off. learning it takes all of 15 mins btw. biggest change is bothering to look at your phone or so you know where to charge. all the cars have utilities to show you chargers. also most of the cars have a little display that essentially gameify's ??? driving efficiency, you naturally start trying to get the green
It helps if you read the posts. Knowing how, when, and where to charge is the topic, not how to make it stop and go.
As I keep saying, if you don't want to learn how an EV operates, then don't rent an EV.
My car's battery holds the energy equivalent of 3.28 gallons of gasoline when fully charged and can travel upwards of 350 miles on it. There's no question which powertrain is more efficient. It isn't even close. Regen braking is one of the reasons why.
I have no idea what that means. How does wasting energy as heat (friction brakes) increase efficiency?
There are stations that take credit cards instead of apps. They are CCS stations which I've never used. Plug-and-charge is more efficient, though. Teslas have always had it. Others are adding it.
What they don't understand is that an EV owner spends almost no time at all refueling their car. In over three years, I've been to a public charger twice and a gas station zero times. That is what life is like as an EV owner, not sitting around waiting for it to charge as so many assume.
You're preaching to the choir here, at least as far as I'm concerned. But we both know that group exists and is very vocal.
And no easy way to find them. Most important, no real reason why all of them couldn't take a credit card. Every single one I stopped at had a contactless reader.
I heard you are only charged an idle fee if it’s mostly full, there is a published percentage where this starts but I cannot remember. Most of the time they are empty from my experience.
