Curious about electric vehicles but not ready to buy one? Renting one can help you see what it’s like — and some rental car companies offer discounts.
But a smooth electric vehicle experience, especially if you rent for vacation, requires a fair amount of planning because fast-charging stations, while more available than they were four years ago, are still not as ubiquitous as gas stations.
For now, an electric car might work better for a long weekend or a trip where you plan to stay in one place and take day trips, rather than an epic coast-to-coast trip.
“A road trip across the country?” said Damon Bell, senior research editor at Cars.com, an online auto marketplace. “It can be done, but you’re making things a little more difficult.”
Most electric vehicle owners install special outlets at home that allow them to charge their cars overnight, so they don’t have to worry too much about finding public charging stations. But if you rent an EV for a trip, you’ll want to map out the location of stations along the routes you expect to travel.
There are now about 70,000 public charging stations with 186,000 gates or stalls — the electric equivalent of gas pumps — across the country, according to the federal government. But they are not evenly distributed. Fast chargers — which can drain a battery in minutes rather than hours — are generally concentrated on the East and West coasts and parts of Texas.
Greg Brannon, director of automotive engineering and industry relations at car owner group AAA, said driving an EV on an extended road trip can increase the time you’ll be in the car by 20 to 30 percent. This is because you will need to find chargers and wait for the battery to charge. In high demand areas, you may have to wait in line for a fast charging port to become available.
“Electric electric cars don’t work very well on long road trips,” he said, particularly if you’re renting a car other than a Tesla, which has the most extensive network of fast chargers. (Some non-Tesla cars, such as Fords and Rivians, can use some Tesla Supercharger stations, but only with a special charging adapter that is not widely available. However, major EV manufacturers are releasing cars compatible with Tesla stations starting in the 2025 model year , according to Consumer Reports.)
Median EV range is now around 270 miles per charge, although range depends on battery type, road conditions, temperature and driving style. Very hot or very cold weather can affect the range. And unlike gas cars, which typically get more miles per gallon in highway driving, EVs can have reduced highway range, Mr. Brannon said, because of how the cars operate.
Planning your route and locating charging stations before you hit the road can reduce ‘range anxiety’, the worry about running out of battery. Various apps, including PlugShare, can help you find public charging stations.
If such complexities don’t put you off, now might be a good time to try an EV, as some companies are offering deals to encourage rentals. Major rental companies have had some ups and downs with electric vehicles, for example, Hertz said this year it would reduce its fleet of electric cars because they lost value faster than expected and demand was lower than expected. Hertz said in an email that it provided resources to help train new EV drivers and offered several models at prices comparable to gas-powered cars.
I rented an EV with my husband over the three day Memorial Day weekend in the Boston area. At the city’s airport, a rental company (Budget) offered a 50 percent discount to renters who changed their reservation from a conventional car to an EV. In a statement, Budget said: “We find that EV rentals are more attractive to customers who have the ability to schedule charging throughout their journey.”
I had already reserved an EV online, so I wasn’t eligible for the half-price deal, the customer representative said. Even so, my price wasn’t bad for an airport rental on a busy holiday weekend — about $89 a day, including myriad fees and cash back on an Amazon gift card, part of a deal with Budget.
The first car we were offered, a Kia, did not have a basic charging cable. So we asked for another car and were given a Chevrolet Bolt, which had one. We planned to do at least some charging by plugging it into a traditional outlet at the house where we lived. But as we quickly learned, such “Level 1” charging is painfully slow — you only get a few miles of range for an hour’s charge.
We found an Electrify America charging station near a local mall that had four ports. Two were fast chargers (the others were slower but serviceable ports where charging the car would take more than an hour). A fast charger was available when we showed up on Friday afternoon. The car charged to 83 percent from about 66 percent in about 30 minutes at a cost of $6.72, including tax. (This was a nice change from a typical $50 tab to fill up my car with gas.) We paid by credit card. Some charging networks offer discounts if you create an account using their apps, and some locations charge more at peak times.
The visit went smoothly. However, half an hour is different from filling your tank in five minutes.
Driving the car was fun. EVs are quiet and lively because their design allows them to accelerate quickly. One difference that took some getting used to was the car’s “regenerative” braking, a feature common to EVs and hybrids that feeds energy back into the battery when the car slows down, boosting its range a bit.
In practice, this means that the car quickly loses speed when you take your foot off the accelerator, so you rarely need to use the brake pedal. (This is also why EVs have less highway driving range. There’s usually less braking.)
We liked the car enough to book a longer stay later in the summer at a budget off-airport location. The rental there – and deposit – was about $31 a day for a late June/early July rental.
Here are some questions and answers about renting an EV:
Do I have to return the EV fully charged?
Typically, rental companies give you the car for a 70 percent or more discount and require you to return it to the same level. If you reset it below this level, you may pay a fee. (Budget charges $35.)
Do hotels and Airbnb rentals offer EV charging?
Hotels are increasingly offering free charging as a perk, but call ahead to confirm the chargers are working. Airbnb says searches on its website for properties with chargers grew more than 80 percent from 2022 to 2023. The company recently announced a partnership with ChargePoint, a charging network, to offer hosts discounts for installing chargers EV.
Should I stay with the EV while it charges?
Most mobile network apps notify you when the car is almost charged, so you can leave for, say, a coffee or a quick meal, and come back when the car is ready. You need to schedule your stops at chargers located near restaurants or other services.
But don’t get tired. If you fail to move the car after the battery is sufficiently charged, you may face “idle time” charges designed to prevent users from docking ports when other cars are waiting.
