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This seems apt in the London forum, as I suspect Enterprise over-indexes in terms of small offices where they can’t park cars on site.
So I went to hire a car to get home on Friday given the train strikes. Headed to the Hammersmith office, to be offered a choice of an electric vehicle with 24 miles range left or nothing.
Needless to say I took the latter option and ended up hailing an Uber, but I’d never thought about this fallacy when it came to renting an EV. The concept seems to be empty to empty, so you will always have to 1) find a charger 2) have the relevant accounts & apps and 3) be willing to waste the first couple of hours of the rental window to just get on the road. It was a one way drop with a return 6hrs later, so they knew exactly how far I needed to drive…
I guess at least at an airport they have compounds big enough to charge up the cars, but this is only going to get more frustrating.
That’s outrageous – a customer might need to get somewhere urgently and not have time for faffing about charging an EV! They should do is supply them all fully charged, and as with conventional fuel vehicles give you the option of bringing it back “full” or “empty” with a surcharge.
Half full to half full is a requirement for EV’s where I hire.
Obvs previous customer didn’t have time to recharge or decided to accept the whopping surcharge he’d no doubt have been invoiced by the car hire co.
In these instances, car hire co’s really need to have someone take it to their known charging place ready for the next customer. They should only have models which can accept a fast charge or at least will charge to 80% within an hour or less. But as with petrol cars I don’t see hire companies staffing up for this.
You did right to reject the car. Unfortunately, car hire co terms and conditions usually say they’re not even obliged to give you a car. Personally I think they should pay your replacement Uber or whatever less the agreed hire charge (waiving the charging cost you’d have paid to recharge after your own use). But I can see no way that’s happening.
And worse, I’d say every car hire company probably has a chance of doing this to you currently for an EV, just as it occasionally happened with petrol vehicles, and I can’t see any recourse for the average customer.
I was at the Marylebone National/Enterprise Friday, and there were several groups waiting for cars to come from Heathrow. There was only one person on the desk as others had gone to drive cars back. The lady on the desk said she’d been cancelling last minute booking. Cars remain in short supply.
When I booked the Qashqai or similar was £700+, whilst electric BMW and Volvo were £440ish, suggesting these remain less popular. I’ve previously had a Tesla from this branch, and on collection was about 50% charged. Whilst a lovely car I ended the 3 day rental with about 5 new apps on my phone and stressful evenings finding a free charger locally. Without a home charger these vehicles remain more problematic. This branch operates in an NCP and charge points are limited.
I’m Exec Elite with National so the short supply worked well for me when the Qashqai similar turned into a rather nice Volvo XC90.
Based on overheard conversations and counter people snippets, in London if you ‘need’ a car, book early and book direct.We noticed in Spain that those who had hired electric cars were quite concerned that they weren’t allowed to park in many car parks, apparently based on weight and fire risk issues. I understand that’s a growing issue in the US as well, for the same reasons with added pressure from property insurers.
The price difference between hiring a car and getting an Uber was pretty minimal in the end, aside from me going out of my way and wasting time to get to Enterprise. The main reason I stopped using Uber to get home is that I live in the middle of nowhere so the drivers in the past have inevitably ended up moaning about having to go back empty – the nearest City with Uber is 20 miles away and even then they’re unlikely to get a fare back to London. (I think the savvy drivers just drop the job when they see the destination…)
This driver didn’t complain at all and instead seemed very pleased to be seeing a different bit of the countryside!
I think I’m most grateful that I didn’t take the 10% discount for a pre-booked rate as I can imagine it would be a PITA to get the money back from them…
Uk reports in the press last month based on this article https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/rise-in-evs-could-have-implications-for-car-park-structures-04-04-2023/
I think I’m most grateful that I didn’t take the 10% discount for a pre-booked rate as I can imagine it would be a PITA to get the money back from them…
FWIW I simply got out of the habit of ever booking a prepaid rental a few years back. There is simply too much that can go wrong.
The exception would be if I’m booking at a really popular time in a location or at the time of a special event there. In that case I’d prepay as like a hotel, there is just that more contractual certainty that if they really run out of rooms or cars, it’s someone else’s booking they’ll choose not to fulfil.
Even then, prepaying is still not an absolute guarantee as both car hire companies and hotels can still let you down. The best advice I can give is whether you prepaid or not, try not to arrive late in the day.
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