My first – and last – EV car rental

Why range anxiety is a real thing, especially for novice EV drivers

 By David Conti

My wife and I recently took a long-overdue vacation to sunny Florida. Although it wasn't a harsh New England winter, we looked forward to longer, sunnier days and made plans to connect with friends and family in Jacksonville, Vero Beach, and Amelia Island.

Vacations are a great time to explore new places and try new things. Unfortunately for us, our experience renting an EV added a lot of stress to the weeklong trip and vowed us to never rent an EV again.

The JetBlue Experience

For years, we’ve been fans of JetBlue. After you book an airline ticket, you’re generally offered deals on hotels, car rentals, and excursions. When I booked the ticket to JAX, JetBlue offered me a 35% discount on a car rental. After checking competitive pricing on Expedia and Priceline, I opted in. Sure, you’ll be hit with $100 in taxes and airport fees on any car rental, but who doesn’t want to save a few bucks on their vacation?

The Mystery Car Offer

JetBlue offered me a “mystery car” through Avis/Budget. Last year, a friend took advantage of a similar offer and was pleasantly surprised. For us, it was a different story.

After waiting in line for 2 hours in the Avis/Budget line (while all the competitor’s car rental desk were mostly vacant), we gave our confirmation number to the cheery car rental agent. “I see you’ve got a Mystery Car. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Surprised, yes. But not pleased. We were given only 2 options: a large Dodge RAM truck getting 15 mpg… or an EV.

“Gee, I’ve never rented an EV, it could be fun. After all, we’re on vacation. What kind of EV, a Tesla?,” I asked politely.

“No, it’s a Hyundai Ioniq 5, but it’s a really good car,” said the agent.

After learning that renting a “regular car” would double the cost from $30 to $60/day, we opted for the Ioniq 5.

The Merits of the Hyundai Ioniq 5

Although I briefly drove a friend’s Tesla last year, my direct experience with EVs was minimal. Fortunately, the Ioniq 5 was extremely easy to drive, featured cool technology including a beautiful navigation screen, and offered plenty of creature comforts and storage. One problem: no rear windshield wiper. And with the pollen and frequent thunderstorms we encountered near Jacksonville, it’s clearly a design flaw.

iPhone EV Charging Stations

EV chargers require you to use credit cards and apps. No cash allowed. Our Avis/Budget agent told us to download Electrify America and EVgo. I’d heard of both since I subscribe to an EV newsletter from PlugInAmerica.

During our Florida trip, we found the Electrify America iPhone app to be useless. There weren’t any convenient charging stations that aligned with our travel itinerary. While recharging at an EVgo charger located in a shopping mall parking lot adjacent to the Daytona Speedway, a fellow traveler told us to download the app from ChargePoint. It turned out to be a life saver and we used it most of the time over the 900+ miles driven during the week.

According to US News, ChargePoint has over 27,000 stations with nearly 50,000 individual charging ports, which are predominantly Level 2, so called fast chargers. Electrify America offers 800 stations and 3,600 fast-charging ports, while EVgo claims 2,200 fast-charging ports – although they were tough to find along our travel path.

Why Range Anxiety is a real thing

One of the qualms of EV drivers is range anxiety. It’s a real thing. We were told the range of the Ioniq 5 was approximately 270 miles. Not true. It was closer to 220, or less. And even though we were driving somewhat conservatively and not cranking the AC, the estimate range decreased at a surprisingly quick rate at times.

When the vehicle was parked overnight at a friend’s house in Vero Beach, the battery somehow was drained. At 9 PM it has 62%. By 8 AM the next morning, it was down to 34%. We still don’t know why that happened.

At one point during the trip we saw the percentage drop from 20% to 10% as the charging stations we encountered in use and unattended or not working at all. When you’re driving in a new city, the last thing you want to worry about is whether you’re going to run out of juice and get stranded on the highway (which actually happened to a frustrated Ioniq EV renter who was transported to a charging station by tow truck - not a good look).

EV Charging Etiquette

In Gainesville, we met a cast of bewildered EV drivers, all frantically searching for a working charger. They were driving a Chevy Bolt, an Ioniq 5, a BMW, and even a sporty-looking Polestar. The 4-station charger was off a main drag in a Target parking lot. However, because charging ports aren’t consistently located in the same place in every EV, people become somewhat creative in trying to line up for the next available charger.

When we arrived with only 10% battery, it was utter chaos. We parked nearby and got out of the EV to “work the crowd”. Fortunately, everyone was very friendly and recognized their place in line, although they were parked in different spots as there is no “line”.

Two young women in the Chevy Bolt (smelling like patchouli) could not get their charger to work. I suggested they move to a different charger, then I called ChargePoint tech support and literally had them reboot the Windows 10 operating system. Yeah, it actually worked and freed up another charger. I had not planned to spend so much time at charging stations during my vacation, much less fixing them.

During the two-hour delay in Gainesville, I called Avis/Budget and told them “we’re done with this EV; we’re bringing it back tonight to get a regular car…” After realizing they could not guarantee a non-EV rental on a Saturday night, we bit the bullet, got the Ioniq 5 charged up, and continued on our way.

Silver lining of renting an EV in Florida

Surprisingly, the cost of electricity was less than the cost of gas would have been for our trip. Overall we spent about $85 in charging fees. Not cheap, but it didn’t feel like we were getting ripped off either. When we left NH the cost of regular gas was approximately $3.10/gallon. In northern Florida, it averaged $3.60. I don’t know how the supply chain impacts the price of gas per state, but in this case, it wasn’t the state gas tax: in NH, it’s $.22 per gallon. In Florida, it’s $.26; not a huge difference.

Consumer Tips

·      Don’t fall for a Mystery Car promo.  So much for the “JetBlue Experience”. I’ll never book another mystery car, just to save a few dollars. In this case, we would have been better offer booking directly through Avis/Budget, using the Budget FastBreak membership to bypass the 2-hour line, and having a wider choice of vehicles.

·      Be a friendly charging customer. Everyone we met had a crazy EV charging story to share. We met some great people and did not feel so isolated because we were stuck with an EV in an unfamiliar locale.

·      If you rent an EV, make it a Tesla. There are over 17,000 Tesla chargers across the country (somewhat concentrated on E. and W. Coasts). In many cases, they are easier to find while you’re driving, more available, and consistently working. The current mush of non-Tesla chargers are not ready for prime time.

·      Stay with your vehicle.  Part of our frustration was that some people left their vehicles for long periods of time. We saw fully-charged vehicles taking our valuable charging ports – and the owners were nowhere in sight. ChargePoint for one, charges $.40 per minute if you vacate your fully-charged vehicle. If we amp that to $5.00 per minute surcharge, you won’t see that kind of behavior again.

Yes, it was an interesting experience to rent an EV for the first time. But range anxiety is a real thing, especially if you’re exploring new places.  Part of the recent Infrastructure Act is to build a network of 500,000 EV charging stations across the US. We’ve got a long way to go. And until we get much closer to that goal, I’m not renting another EV on vacation.