this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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Hertz Is Selling 20,000 Used EVs Due To High Repair Costs::undefined

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Apparently it’s related to “expenses related to collision and damage” and they’ve had to put speed and torque limitations on the fleet cars.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/hertz-sell-about-20000-evs-us-fleet-2024-01-11/

Telsas and Polestars are not slow cars, and it sounds like renters are driving them aggressively. I wouldn’t be surprised if torque and speed are also the reason why Tesla is #1 with recent car accidents stats.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Telsas and Polestars are not slow cars, and it sounds like renters are driving them aggressively.

Driving a rental car - any rental car - more aggressively than your own car has been pretty typical behaviour since the beginning of rental cars.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. Only now they’re twice as fast and require you to play a video game to turn the air vents.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, technically you're not supposed to be fiddling with neither radio, AC or other crap on any car, touch or not, when you're driving. All of that should be set before you start driving anywhere. If you follow the law to the letter, the only thing you should operate while driving, is what can be done from the steering wheel controls and voice control.

Of course that's now how most people actually drive their cars...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have never in my life heard this before. What if the window fogs up and you have to turn the defrost on?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You should have anticipated this and directed airflow to the windshield before you start driving.

I have also never experienced spontaneous fogging of the windshield while I'm driving, and I live in Scandinavian weather which is both humid and cold. It's always there when I enter the car. The AC dehumidifies the cabin air while driving so it really shouldn't be fogging the windshield out of the blue while you're driving.

But besides that, steering wheel control or voice control cab enable/disable this in many cars these days.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah, last time I've rented a car I wanted an electric but my insurance would not cover me for a Tesla.

They are in the sport car category.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Hertz is also famous for renting Mustang GTs which are much faster and much more likely to be driven aggressively.

I'm guessing it has more to do with the misconceptions around "self-driving" that these cars don't even include.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say a mustang GT is any faster. Most EV's have a sub 5 second 0-60, which is what a Musang GT has. EVs are just incredibly fast, especially Teslas.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I wouldn't say a mustang GT is any faster.

Well if you said anything different you'd simply be wrong.

Most EV's have a sub 5 second 0-60

This isn't "most EVs", this is a Tesla Model 3 standard range (AKA RWD).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, but they usually don’t have a lot of those things on the lot to rent. They have a butt load of Model 3s. My guess is that it’s a numbers game.

They also have a ton of data and footage to tell them what people are doing when they’re getting into accidents, and after looking at that stuff, they’re choosing to basically put these cars into a form of valet mode to limit acceleration.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Pretty sure they are #1 due to their touchscreen focus. Its incredibly hard to operate a Tesla safely.