William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
October 16, 2013
Range Anxiety. A condition that still plagues electric vehicles. But it isn't limited to prospective customers who are worried about not having enough juice, it has now spread to rental customers. A number of rental car agencies have now started offering electric vehicles. This allows consumers to try an EV. But renters are returning the EVs much sooner and exchanging them for gas vehicle.
“People are very keen to try it, but they will switch out of the contract part way through. Range anxiety makes them think they can’t get to a charging station,” said Lee Broughton, head of sustainability at Enterprise.
Enterprise data shows that on average, renters trade EVs in 1.6 days into the rental period compared to the 6 to 7 days of a standard gas vehicle.
Christopher Agnew, an analyst at MKM Holdings LLC says that a longer range would help renter's range anxiety, especially in places where they don't where they're going.
Now you can rent a Tesla Model S if you go to certain place, but expect to pay a pretty penny. MPG Car Rental based out of Venice, CA rents a Model S for $500 per day. To put that in perspective, a Prius Plug-In costs $99 per day.
Despite these setbacks, rental car companies say they will keep buying EVs for their fleets.
Source: Bloomberg
William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.
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