We’d booked a rental car a few weeks before a weekend camping trip. My boyfriend picked up the car while I was still at work and sent a text saying that an electric vehicle was the only car available. I said to get it, but neither of us had ever driven an EV before. We had no idea how or where to charge. He said the guy at the rental place didn’t ask him whether he knew how to charge. Luckily, we weren’t going that far – about 125 kilometres each way – so we didn’t need to charge. We were going to charge before we returned it at a charger near our house, but when we got there, it didn’t seem to be working so we decided to just pay the rental company’s penalty for not charging it. Over all, we were happy with the car, but shouldn’t rental companies be more helpful with explaining how to charge? Is there an EV charging course anywhere? – Elaine, Richmond, B.C.
If you’re shocked at the rental counter by an unexpected electric vehicle, don’t panic – especially if it’s a Tesla, an EV expert said. While you can figure out more complicated chargers with the help of apps and Google, Tesla’s are the simplest to use.
“If the rental vehicle is a Tesla, prioritize Tesla Supercharger stations [over other charging networks],” said Michael Stanyer, communications program lead with Plug In BC, a not-for-profit group that promotes EV adoption. “The Tesla account should already be enabled on the vehicle so a driver can simply plug in and begin charging. The car’s navigation will show nearby stations and provide a charging plan if a route is entered.”
While Tesla faces problems, including U.S. government investigations into crashes believed to involve its Autopilot technology and incidents where Model Y steering wheels have come off, its charging network is easier to use and generally more reliable than rivals.
I found this out myself during back-to-back road trips last year – in an unexpected EV rental. That’s why Ford, General Motors, Volvo and Rivian will be enabling their EVs to charge on Tesla’s Supercharger network.
While you can use non-Tesla chargers to charge a Tesla – if the rental vehicle came with an adapter, that is – its Superchargers let you plug in and immediately charge. The charging time is automatically billed to the owner’s – in this case, the rental company’s – Tesla account.
That’s simpler than many non-Tesla charging networks, Stanyer said. Some, including Flo and ChargePoint, require you to download an app and set up an account before you can use them.
Others, including Electrify Canada and Petro-Canada, let you start charging by just tapping your credit or debit card like you would at a gas pump. You don’t need an account with them – although both also let you pay through their apps.
“I have seen car share and peer-to-peer vehicles supplied with RFID cards [tap cards for EV accounts] so that renters do not need to make their own accounts; it’s something to ask about when renting an EV,” Stanyer said. “But if renters need to make accounts, the process only takes a couple of minutes.”
Where to charge?
Many EVs with GPS will automatically show you charging points along your route, Stanyer said.
“Many new EVs will precondition the battery [heat or cool it to the ideal charging temperature, depending on the outside temperature] for better charging speeds if they are navigating to a fast-charging station,” Stanyer said.
Otherwise, there are free apps, including A Better Route Planner and PlugShare, that let you find charging stations along your route, Stanyer said.
Also, there are online resources, including this page from EmotiveBC, a provincially funded EV education resource, that quickly explain how charging works, Stanyer said.
Also, not all charging is the same. There are three levels of EV charging. If your rental EV comes with an adapter that lets you use a standard 120-volt outlet – known as Level 1 charging – you could technically use that to charge, but it would likely take days to fully replenish the battery.
Level 2 is faster, but it could still take hours to fully recharge. Level 3, also known as DC fast charging, is the fastest.
Depending on the vehicle and the speed of the charger, you could reach an 80-per-cent charge in 20 to 45 minutes.
“Drivers should not be fast-charging above 70 to 80 per cent unless they really have to,” Stanyer said. “Charging speed is throttled down as the battery charges up and most vehicles will charge noticeably slower once they reach 70 to 80 per cent.”
Surprise EV?
Stanyer, who rents EVs regularly, said he hasn’t heard of anyone being surprised with an EV they hadn’t planned for at a rental counter.
“The most trouble I’ve had with a rental EV is that a previous user had entered a charging schedule [into the car’s computer], which prevented the vehicle from charging automatically when I used a charging station at a hotel,” Stanyer said. “I had to clear the schedule so that it would begin charging as soon as it was plugged in.”
But surprises do happen. Last month, Saahil Desai, a senior associate editor with The Atlantic, wrote that he got a surprise EV when he booked a “Manager’s Special” from Hertz and no other car was available.
“All Hertz had provided me with was a sheet of paper listing three nearby EV chargers, which were really not germane to my out-of-town trip,” Desai wrote.
Hertz’s “Manager’s Special” is the company’s cheapest rental option. But you don’t know what kind of vehicle you’ll get – it could be anything from a truck to an EV – until you are at the counter, Hertz spokeswoman Lauren Luster said in an email.
The chances that you could be assigned an EV at the rental counter are growing. While Hertz, which also owns Thrifty and Dollar, wouldn’t say how many EVs it has in Canada, its worldwide fleet of EVs numbers more than 50,000, about 10 per cent of its stock. Asked whether rental agents automatically give charging advice to EV newbies, Luster said the tag attached to the car key has a QR code that links to the company’s EV page.
Hertz charges $35 to recharge a battery that’s returned with a charge between 10 and 69 per cent. It will add $25 to that if the charge is below 10 per cent. But you won’t be charged if the battery is at 70 per cent or higher, Luster said.
We reached out to other rental companies. Budget didn’t respond. Enterprise Holdings, which owns Enterprise, National and Alamo, said it won’t surprise renters with an EV they hadn’t booked.
“Today, customers in our EVs are typically those who are renting them as a replacement while the EV they own is in the shop, or are those who have made reservations and are interested in trying one for the first time,” Enterprise spokeswoman Lisa Martini said in an email.
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