I recently rented a car for a day of errands, drove it for 140 miles and returned it without stopping for gas even once. When I returned it, I was checked in by a polite gentleman who gave it the quick once over, looked at the mileage and told me the receipt was on its way. Not one word about the gas.
How did I do it? It was easy. I rented a battery electric car. I hadn’t planned on renting an electric car. In fact, I didn’t realize that was even an option. But when I checked for rentals, I found that electric was another choice just like any other car category. It was priced higher than the cheapest car I could have taken by $16 per day, or about the cost of four and half gallons of gas.
This was my first experience in a battery electric car, so I did do a little research before getting it. First, I wasn’t sure what kind of car I would get. Alamo, who I used, has a Nissan Leaf as the example car but of course I wasn’t promised a specific model or a minimum range. I then plotted out everywhere I needed to go and found that my route was about 140 miles. The Leaf has an EPA range of 149 miles so this could turn into a bit of a nail biter, but I clicked on it anyway and finalized my reservation.
Next, I checked with Alamo to make sure I didn’t need to charge it before returning the car. The customer service representative wrote back, “At this time, we do not require electric cars to be returned fully charged.” A quick check online revealed that the other major rental car companies have the same policy. I was all set.
When I picked up the rental, instead of being pointed to a row from which to choose my car, I was asked to wait while the agent went to look for an electric vehicle. He was back in less than a minute and walked me to some spots right by the door where three electric Hyundai Kona’s were parked, all next to each other. They must not rent too many electric cars yet at this location.
I was a little apprehensive when I got in the car since the Kona is not built on a dedicated electric vehicle platform and I was worried that it wouldn’t have the range I needed. To my surprise, the dash indicated an available range of 314 miles – more than double what I was expecting to use (the EPA range is 258 miles). Perfect! I buckled up, pushed start, selected D for drive and was on my way.
At first, I found it hard to be smooth in this car. The acceleration is much stronger than you would expect and as soon as I lifted my foot off the throttle, it would decelerate noticeably. But it didn’t take long to adjust my driving style. There is a little indicator showing how much regenerative braking is set when not on the throttle and I found a little paddle behind the steering wheel to select low, medium or high. On low, it will coast like any other car and on high you can mostly drive using just one pedal.
