USA Car Rental EVs?

[irc]

We are planning a USA fly drive holiday next year. From San Francisco. Possibly Avis booked along with BA flights. I do not want an EV we will be doing long distances each day and do not want the hassle of charging every day.

Do the rental companies still have plenty ICE cars? Has anyone experienced booking an ICE car and getting given an EV instead?

[numtumfutunch]

irc said:

We are planning a USA fly drive holiday next year. From San Francisco. Possibly Avis booked along with BA flights. I do not want an EV we will be doing long distances each day and do not want the hassle of charging every day.

Do the rental companies still have plenty ICE cars? Has anyone experienced booking an ICE car and getting given an EV instead?

Did the same just about a year ago and hooned a 300C for a week

If Id have really thought about how much luggage we had Id have bagged a 'stang TBH

EVs are a thing but I dont think you need to sress it

[djc206]

irc said:

We are planning a USA fly drive holiday next year. From San Francisco. Possibly Avis booked along with BA flights. I do not want an EV we will be doing long distances each day and do not want the hassle of charging every day.

Do the rental companies still have plenty ICE cars? Has anyone experienced booking an ICE car and getting given an EV instead?

Yes lots of normal petrol cars available. I’m open to being corrected but I think it’s predominantly Hertz that have an EV heavy fleet in the US. Avis gave me a Tesla in Canada at a downtown location but so far in the US I’ve never been stuck with one

[WyrleyD]

Hertz have binned off half of their EV fleet (Teslas and Polestars) at a huge loss to get rid of them, they're replacing them with ICE cars so it seems that no-one wanted to rent them.

[Rough101]

I always book a ‘Camry’ as Avis name that class, never had an EV instead, but only once ever been given an actual Camry.
Had Jeeps, Highlander, Passat, Fusion (Mondeo), Optima, all sorts. No EV’s.

[2 GKC]

Sign up to their loyalty programme and you can take whatever car you want within a class. Very unlikely to get stuck with an EV.

I booked an intermediate or full size about a year ago and got loads of emails about how it was going to be an EV, how and where to charge it etc but when I went to the lot, there wasn’t an EV in sight.

[Chucklehead]

You should never be stuck with an EV that you haven't requested.. Rental car groups are classified by SIPP codes (https://www.acriss.org/car-codes/) and EVs are a distinct group. The BA website for cars is like something from the mid-90s though, so you might need to compare with Avis/Budget direct to see what the group W/V/Z/Y or whatever they use might include.

Be careful of "mystery" car groups as they might use those to offload their EVs.

[irc]

Thanks for replies. looks like it should be OK if I avoid mystery car deals. Probably Sept after Labor day so outside peak as well.

[GCH]

I've only ever been stuck with a tesla that I didn't book (had booked an SUV!) and that was last summer, before Hertz decided to sell off half the EV fleet.
I'm Presidents Circle level too....it should never have happened, but, it was a very small regional airport location, 1am, and they had just given my car to a Karen who had booked a minivan that wasn't there, and they had genuinely no other cars in the lot besides two teslas, so it was either that or walk several hundred miles.... Thankfully the service recovery after the (awful) rental made up for it.

At SFO you will be fine. Don't stress.

[Ken_Code]

In my experience the big US rental firms are very good at switching things around to get you what you want, although it can involve a bit of a wait sometimes.