On the whole, I’ve had good experiences with Avis car rentals. With the free “Avis Preferred” program you can generally skip the counter and go straight to your car assigned car in the lot, which saves a lot of headache, and human interaction. The problem arises when you don’t like the car they’ve assigned you and you need to go do some negotiating at the counter to see if an alternative is available, but even then there is a designated counter for Preferred members and the line is shorter than the regular counter.
On this trip to Orlando, I check my Avis app at baggage claim and see I’m assigned a Kia Niro with a full tank of gas– never heard of it. With a quick Google search the first result indicates this is hybrid and I am thrilled! My last rental was a Toyota Prius hybrid and it got fantastic gas mileage (although, not great in the snow).
Bags in hand I wind through the maze of the Orlando airport to the Avis rental car lot. I walk past the desk for non-preferred Avis rentals, and the circuitous line of haggard travelers is spilling out of the line partitions – suckers!
I continue on to the car lot and as I pass by the Avis Preferred rental counter I notice no employees are there. Not to worry though, I have a great car assigned and won’t need their help (dun-dun-dun, foreshadowing).
My blue Kia Niro is exactly where it is supposed to be. I do a quick walk around, no dents, dings, or scratches. Turning it on, I check the dashboard gauges. This baby only has 1702 miles on it – nice!
I’m looking at these other gauges and I don’t see a gas tank symbol. There is a gauge with a battery symbol and one with a lightning bolt symbol, but nothing seems “full”, although the app told me the car had a full tank. My default assumption is that I am just an idiot. I do a little more Googling and learn there is also a fully electric version of the Niro, which must be what I have.
Cue panic.
How do you charge an electric car?
Where am I going to charge an electric car on vacation?
How long does it take to charge an electric car?
How much does it cost to charge an electric car?
Because I know there is no one at the Avis Preferred desk at the lot, my choices are to brave the 3 loop-deep line of customers at the regular counter or learn a lot about electric cars in a short period of time. Because I avoid other humans as much as possible and love learning, the electric car it is!
When you leave the lot you have to show the attendant your license. I am still doubting myself on how to read these gauges and can’t tell which one is supposed to indicate a full battery, so I muster up the courage to ask the checkout attendant.
“Excuse me, could you tell me which one of these gauges indicates the battery level?”.
He looks at me like I am an idiot and with an eye roll explains,
“This is an electric car, it runs on a battery. It’s the one with a battery symbol.”
Ok dude, not everyone sees 100 different cars a day. This human interaction is hard enough for me without your ‘tude.
“Ah ok well I was confused because the app said the tank was full but that battery is showing only half full.”
He looks closer at the battery gauge to confirm it’s at half, and then steps away to check the computer. I can see his facial expression change as he realizes that I am not a total idiot and the app was incorrect. With a few taps he updated the database to indicate the car is only half full and advises me that I only have to bring it back half full. It only took a couple minutes and 2 sentences of human interaction and I have learned which gauge to look at and am reassured that the “fuel” level in the app accurately reflects what Avis has actually given me. Only about 50 more questions about this car to go!
Once I reach my AirBnB I spend about 45 minutes researching electrics cars, watching videos of how to charge electric cars, and searching the map for car chargers near me. The information is contradictory, but it seems some charging stations give you a couple hours for free before they start charging you, although it takes many hours (overnight) for the car to charge fully so those free hours don’t get you too far.
It’s pretty slim pickings for car chargers near me – most are in hotel parking lots and meant for guests of the hotel. I do find some listed at a Target parking lot about 10 minutes away. Based on online reviews, it’s hit or miss whether they will be operational and if any will actually be available. It seems like it’s still my best option, so I plan to go there in the morning and have some Starbucks in Target while I wait for the car to charge up.
I toss and turn in bed for an hour panicking about how to charge this car, scared that I won’t find a charger and even if I do, I will somehow break the car by charging it wrong – just how I wanted to spend vacation!
In the morning I head over to Target and by the grace of the electric vehicle gods, there is a charging spot open. It is right on a busy intersection, so I begin mentally preparing for every person who passes to observe my shame as I try to figure out what the hell I am doing with this charger. I pull in to the open slot and notice driver of the car charging next to mine is sitting in the front seat playing with his phone.
Picture a Florida Man.
Now, Florida Man who works at a medical marijuana dispensary and regularly samples his own products.
Now imagine he got in a fight with a bottle of self-tanner or ate a bag of Cheetos without using his hands, like a pig rooting for truffles.
For whatever reason, his mouth and nose have a distinct orange tinge and long blond dreadlocks are matted in disarray. All around he looks like a questionable character, but he is driving a newer model electric car, so he must at least know how to work these chargers.
My fear of breaking this rental car was stronger than my fear of engaging with this suspicious character so I gently tap on his driver’s side window. He promptly looks up and rolls down his window.
“Hi! I was wondering if you could supervise me while I hook up my car to charge. This is a rental and I’ve never done this before and I’m scared of breaking it.”
He immediately jumps into action and assures me he will teach me all the “hacks”. He explains to me the difference between different “levels” of chargers. We are using Level 2 chargers, and these ones give about 7 kw of power, equating to about 30 miles of travel per hour of charging. I calculate based on my plans I am going to need about 100 miles-worth of charge, which equates to sitting in this Target parking lot for about 4 hours. At least the first 2 hours are free, and it’s only $2/hour after that.
In stark contrast, the Tesla Superchargers next to us deliver about 200 miles worth of energy in about 15 minutes. However, he cautions me,
“If you plug this car into one of the Tesla chargers it will explode! Haha, not really. But for real, don’t plug it into those chargers.”
Noted. Not trying to explode my rental car.
Florida Man explains that one of the “hacks” is that some credit card companies let you activate the charger without downloading the app and creating an account. I try with my Chase Sapphire Preferred and am immediately authorized to start charging. He seems astounded that his own hack actually worked. The next level hack is that you can try multiple different cards at the end of each 2 hour free session to try to get multiple free sessions in a row. I have not yet reached that level of desperation, but this is good to know.
He watches me as I open my car’s charger cover, insert the charger, and get an audible “Charging started” confirmation from the car. Well now, that wasn’t so bad!
I thank him profusely as he really did come through for me and was extremely kind and helpful. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, kids!
I transition operations to the Starbucks for the next 2 hours, grabbing a seat by the window so I can keep an eye on the car for any explosions, smoke, or other funny business.
I also made use of the Starbucks refill policy where if you drink the beverage in the cafe you get a free refill of the base drink! (e.g. free cold brew, but still pay extra for flavorings or cold foam)
The charging isn’t quite as efficient as I’d hoped, so I have to come back later in the evening for another 2 hour session. Each 2 hour session gets me about 50 theoretical miles of charge.
I continue to spend most of the first day of vacation worrying about getting enough charge in this car to ensure Avis doesn’t charge me for not filling it up enough. Eventually I decided 4 hours was enough of my vacation to spend in a parking lot and whatever charge it’s at is the charge they are getting.
I’m scared they will still somehow try to charge me extra for not bringing git back full, so when I drop the car off I mention to the attendant that it’s only half full (technically a bit less than half…) and that when I picked it up it was only half full.
He calmly reassures me, ”Don’t even worry about that.”
Sir, I have been extremely worried about for the past 36 hours. Like losing sleep over this worried.
In the end, everything was fine. It always ends up fine. I didn’t get any extra charges and I learned a lot about electric cars. I would never willingly accept an electric car as a rental again, but I’m glad I now have the skills and confidence to deal with this situation if it ever comes up again.
If this was your daily car and you could charge it overnight at home I think it would make owning an electric car much more logistically easy.
Do you have an electric car? What is it like trying to travel long distances and looking for chargers along the way?
