Renting an EV from Avis

[Smitty79]

I've had my Model 3 for almost 4 years. With my Tesla, I'm an experienced road tripper. In a few weeks, I'm going to rent an EV for the first time.

I have my reservation with Avis. I have a discount extras because of loyalty status from work. I have picked a car as a "Model Y or Equivalent". For those who have rented from Avis, does anyone know what the likelyhood of getting a Model Y is? I'd love to try one and live with it for a few days. If I get a Y, is it going to come with a charging cable? Should I bring my J1772 adapter? At a supercharger, do I just plug and charge and then Avis bills me for supercharging?

If I don't get a Model Y, what else am I likely to get? I've never CCS charged. I have Chargepoint and Shell apps and accounts already, from L2 Charging. I suspect I should get an EA account too. I'll be in central California in June. Can I expect EA to be reliable?

 

[bruce4000]

The Avis website just shows Tesla Model 3 (and says very limited availability). I have been wondering if other rental companies would start renting EVs given Hertz says its Teslas have been working out very well.

 

[Yelobird]

There is already an entire thread dedicated to this topic that might help.

Discussion: Experiences Renting a Tesla Model 3 / Y from various companies

I have just come back from Florida where I rented a Model Y from AVIS from Orlando Airport. Here's what I thought about it all... I have a MY at home. To start, I was surprised they were doing Teslas at all - I know Hertz do, but now AVIS as well it seems. I saw several MY's there and maybe...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Earl]

There is already an entire thread dedicated to this topic that might help.

Discussion: Experiences Renting a Tesla Model 3 / Y from various companies

I have just come back from Florida where I rented a Model Y from AVIS from Orlando Airport. Here's what I thought about it all... I have a MY at home. To start, I was surprised they were doing Teslas at all - I know Hertz do, but now AVIS as well it seems. I saw several MY's there and maybe...

teslamotorsclub.com

too bad that thread is buried in the Model Y track when it applies to all Tesla rentals.
We recently rented a Model 3 on vacation in New Zealand. Other than Avis problems such as a tire leak when we picked it up so they gave us a Model Y and it not having a Type-2 cable (so we grabbed the one from the Model 3 with the tire leak), we had a blast with it. Sure, not having phone access wasn't as convenient but we enjoyed driving a great, familiar car on the 'wrong' side of the road.
We did get hit by a rock in the windscreen and just got a bill for $2K from Avis that has not, yet shown up on our credit card to which they claimed they had charged. Avis, also, of course, screwed up and billed my company credit card, not my personal one that covers collision damage deductable but, with a little work I got the charge moved to my personal car. Now, whenever it shows up on my card, we'll be able to go through the fun of battling to get coverage.
Again, all Avis issues, not Tesla or EV ones.
I'm travelling on business to Atlanta shortly, however, it looks like the Tesla costs about twice as much as an intermediate ICE (company standard) so, unless I can talk the folks in the booth into giving me an upgrade to a Tesla, I guess I'll be ICEing and appreciating my Tesla. BTW, my hotel has plenty of Tesla and J-1772 destination chargers so an EV would be awesome!

 

[Cheburashka]

If its anything like Hertz, just don't.

They make you return the car above 80% or else they charge you a fee like for filling the tank. Imagine wasting your time at a charger when you are rushing to return the car.

Never renting an EV again.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

If I don't get a Model Y, what else am I likely to get?

a Chevy Cruze

 

[Cheburashka]

Hertz has Polestar 2 and also Kia Kona EV

 

[gt2690b]

If its anything like Hertz, just don't.

They make you return the car above 80% or else they charge you a fee like for filling the tank. Imagine wasting your time at a charger when you are rushing to return the car.

Never renting an EV again.

Yeah this is lame ruins the whole point. .. maybe if you're staying at a hotel by airport with charging the night before

 

[Richster64]

Never renting an EV again.

With various countries / states / provinces mandating EV only sales after <Insert year here>, you won't have a choice.

Things will improve, charging will be everywhere - it has to be otherwise the whole transportation world will fall apart. Oh, wait....

 

[Yelobird]

If its anything like Hertz, just don't.

They make you return the car above 80% or else they charge you a fee like for filling the tank. Imagine wasting your time at a charger when you are rushing to return the car.

Never renting an EV again.

Do they let you return ICE cars empty? Not really a life altering change.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

They make you return the car above 80% or else they charge you a fee like for filling the tank. Imagine wasting your time at a charger when you are rushing to return the car.

Then just immediately charge it to 100% and keep it there as much as you can for the entire time you rent it!

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Do they let you return ICE cars empty? Not really a life altering change.

Well (although it's been a while since I rented a car) they had various programs like bring it back full or bring it back however you want and we'll fill it at $x per gallon (where x is about twice the high street price), but at least you knew the amount

Ok ... for "various" read "two" - lol

gt2690b has a valid point though: if you're rushing for a flight and need gas it's not too time consuming to achieve that but (and I hate to say this) if you need to "refill" an EV, you could be in for quite a wait (assuming you could even find an available charger near the airport)

 

[Cheburashka]

Do they let you return ICE cars empty? Not really a life altering change.

Takes me 5 minutes to find a gas station beside an airport and fill the tank.