Renting an EV for the first time? 5 things to know before you drive

This July 4 weekend, a record number of Americans are expected to travel by car, with more than 40 million people set to hit the road. With EV sales booming and rental companies stocking their fleets with electric options, a portion of those vehicles are sure to be electric. But if you’ve never rented an EV before, there are a few things you should know before you start your trip.

It’s not clear just how many EV rental cars are available or booked over the next several days, but Hertz, which has been electrifying its fleet (and pushing those EV options in a recent ad that features Tom Brady), said it expects “strong demand” across its fleet over the holiday weekend, which includes renting “the vast majority” of its “approximately 50,000 electric vehicles.”

If you’re renting an EV, it could be a test of whether you want to commit to owning one in the future. And if there’s a spike in EV rentals for Independence Day weekend, it could be a test of the country’s still-fledgling charging network.

Yan (Joann) Zhou, manager of vehicle and energy technology and mobility analysis at the Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Energy Department research center, says the charging network across the country should be sufficient, because EV use is still so low—just slightly more than 1% of the vehicles on the road are electric, even though EV sales in the U.S. have jumped to above 5%, from 1.7% in 2020.

But there have also been plenty of firsthand stories of EV drivers facing charging challenges. So, Zhou says, “drivers need to plan ahead.” Here are five things to be aware of, especially if you’ll be driving an electric vehicle for the first time.

Know where EV chargers are located

The first step is to map out available chargers along the route you plan to take. The DOE has a map (as well as a search tool) of all EV charging stations in the U.S. and Canada, as well as an app—or you can use apps like Chargeway, ChargeHub, or PlugShare. If you’re driving a Telsa (an option through Hertz), the navigation screen will show you nearby Tesla Supercharger stations. There are already more than 130,000 public chargers across the country, according to the White House (which plans to build a national network of 500,000 chargers by 2030).

Check the type of charger

Not all EV chargers are the same. There are three different types of charging ports: Tesla chargers, CCS chargers, and CHAdeMO chargers. Depending on the type of EV you’re driving, you may need an adapter; if you’re driving a Tesla, for example, and pull into a CCS charging station, you’ll need to attach the adapter (for rental vehicles, Hertz says it’s included in its Mobile Connector Kit) to the end of the connecter before plugging it into your car.

There are also different power levels of chargers (from Level 1, the slowest, to Level 3, known as DC fast charging), meaning the type you use will determine how long it will take to sufficiently charge your car’s battery. Most Level 1 chargers are for residential use, where you can leave your car plugged in overnight. Any community chargers you find along your route will likely be Level 1 and require a significant time commitment.

Along the highway, though, most charging stations provide DC fast charging, Zhou says, “so that has at least 50-kilowatt charging power, and that can give you a decent amount of juice for the time you stop. . . . But still, you have to stop there for a while—it’s not like a gas station where you only need five minutes.” She advises paying attention to the charging technology available along your route, making sure it’s compatible with your vehicle, and accounting for the charging time in your travel plans.

Plan how to pay

Renting an EV may mean you’re not paying for gas on your road trip, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be paying to fuel up. Some public stations are free to use, but others—including Tesla Superchargers—are not. “There are different business models out there,” Zhou says. “Some of them are charged by membership, some of them are charged by kilowatt-hour of electricity delivered to your car.”

For some chargers, you may have to download an accompanying app in order to pay; others may take credit cards directly like at a gas station. It’s just another factor to be aware of as you map out your itinerary.

Anticipate issues

So you’ve found a charging station along your route, you’ve determined that it’s compatible with your rental vehicle, and you’ve worked out how to pay. Even after all that, it might not work. Recent data has shown that more than one in five EV charging attempts at public stations fail. That could happen for a variety of reasons and not all are due to user error.

“A large portion of that is that the charger probably has some malfunction that didn’t get captured in real time, and that creates challenges for drivers to use those chargers when they travel long distances,” Zhou says. It’s something she says the charging industry and the government, including the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, are aware of and know needs addressing.

Over the next two years, the government’s national labs aim to improve the EV public charging experience for Americans, which means tackling reliability. Additionally, the Federal Highway Administration has a mandate in its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Standards and Requirements “that each charging port must have an average annual uptime greater than 97%.”

Right now, though, you may still run into errors, so anticipate them. “The charger reliability is something the federal agencies and also industry partners are all aware of, and that’s also something drivers need to pay attention to when they rent a vehicle,” Zhou says, “because that does add another complication to charger availability.”

Realize your range might change

How often you need to find a charger and deal with all of those complications depends on your EV range—but be warned, what’s advertised for the type of vehicle you rent may not be the reality once your wheels are on the road. That range may vary depending on a number of factors.

“Our testing results show if the temperature is extremely high or low outside—like for example 20 degrees Fahrenheit or 95 degrees Fahrenheit—and when the driver has AC on, the range can be 50% less,” Zhou says. “You can get half of the electric range that’s being advertised.”

That much range loss seems more relegated to extremely cold days; AAA research has shown that temperatures above 95 F and air-conditioning use can decrease range by roughly 17%. Still, that means if, say, you’re in your rental car in Florida, blasting the air-conditioning, and you have a tendency to drive a bit aggressively, you can’t expect your EV to give you all 300 miles it advertises on a single charge. Again, the message is to plan ahead, be prepared for a few bumps along the way, and, ultimately, enjoy the ride.