Electric Car News

[glhs837]

They treated cars from a Rental Agency like Rentals? Who'da thunk it?

Well, I occasionally dog the throttle, which is what most folks thing when you think "drive it like a rental". But these Uber folks, its a bit different. Bumpers and fenders bouncing off of things, curb rashing the wheels, hitting curbs and screwing up the suspension, that's what it means in that context. Most folks getting rentals dont actually damage stuff. They might leave some trash, curb a wheel, but they are not slamming curbs and bumping off of things.

They had no skin in the game, and so they didnt give an eff about damaging the equipment.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Well, I occasionally dog the throttle, which is what most folks thing when you think "drive it like a rental". But these Uber folks, its a bit different. Bumpers and fenders bouncing off of things, curb rashing the wheels, hitting curbs and screwing up the suspension, that's what it means in that context. Most folks getting rentals dont actually damage stuff. They might leave some trash, curb a wheel, but they are not slamming curbs and bumping off of things.

They had no skin in the game, and so they didnt give an eff about damaging the equipment.

That whole idea was about the dumbest thing ever. Why on earth did they decide to rent to them for so cheap and also not be responsible for damages? Its almost like it was a money laundering scheme the mafia thought up.

 

[glhs837]

That whole idea was about the dumbest thing ever. Why on earth did they decide to rent to them for so cheap and also not be responsible for damages? Its almost like it was a money laundering scheme the mafia thought up.

Uber partners with Hertz to expand short-term car rental program

Uber Technologies partnered this week with Hertz, one of the world’s largest car rental companies, to offer short-term auto rentals to ride-hailing drivers -- a move intended to court new drivers and keep current ones on the road.

www.latimes.com

According to this. I suspect the drivers offered the program were initially "curated", but with the huge EV push they stopped vetting like that. Another factor might be that they based damage repair costs on older vehicles with more miles and better parts availability.

 

[GURPS]

Grid-Draining Electron Guzzlers And The End Of Driving​

I & I Editorial Board
March 22, 2024
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In perfect Democratic Party form, the Biden administration has dropped another government burden on the private sector. Two days ago, the White House rolled out “the toughest-ever” automobile emissions standards. The objective, of course, is to force Americans to buy the cars that the ruling class wants them to drive. There’s a big problem here, though – the grid won’t be up to the task of keeping tens of millions of electric vehicles charged.

The headline from a Bloomberg story last week summed up the plan: “Biden Set to Crack Down on Auto Emissions to Accelerate EV Sales.”
Rules decreed by the Environmental Protection Agency are intended to “propel electric vehicle sales well beyond current levels,” says Bloomberg. “The EPA has projected that to meet proposed mandates, electric models would need to make up roughly two-thirds of car and light truck sales in 2032 — up from less than a tenth last year.”

This is no noble effort to prevent a climate catastrophe. Democrats, eco-activists and the thoroughly compromised media continually argue that we have to move to EVs to save the sky, but the federal rules and state mandates they propose and issue are part of a larger plan to drive Americans out of cars and into public transit, which is failing across the country.

There are a number of problems with the march to EV-topia. They’re not zero-emission vehicles, they’re an extravagant purchase, costly to repair, expensive to insure, hazardous to own, and they create a new class of hazmat problems.

On top of all that, charging them is a hassle, which is only going to become worse. America, in 2024, is already running out of power.
“Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid,” the Washington Post reported earlier this month.

 

[GURPS]

Carney on ‘Kudlow’: Electric Vehicles Are Pushing Up Auto Insurance Prices​

 

[TPD]

Hertz CEO Out As Firm Seeks Traction After Big EV Bet Goes Bust​

CEO Stephen Scherr's barely two-year ride with Hertz came to a screeching halt on Friday. In his wake, he leaves a company still working to recover from a big bet on electric vehicles gone bad. It will do so under new CEO Gil West, whose previous posts include executive roles at Delta Air Lines and the Cruise unit of General Motors.

Scherr, who came on board in February 2022 after 30 years at Goldman Sachs, ushered the company through its emergence from bankruptcy. Hertz's EV push began in the previous year, with a splashy move to order 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles. After taking the reins of the Estero, Florida-headquartered company, Scherr doubled down on the green vision, committing to purchased another 65,000 EVs from Polestar, a Swedish company.

In December 2023, Hertz emphatically demonstrated that its massive EV push just wasn't working out, throwing 20,000 EVs into the used-car market to start a systematic liquidation planned to extend through 2024. "The company expects to reinvest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine vehicles to meet customer demand," Hertz said at the time, adding, "The company expects this action to better balance supply against expected demand of EVs."

The resale of fleet cars is a key driver of rental car companies' profitability. On that front, Tesla threw a wrench in Hertz's financials by aggressively slashing prices across its product line, crushing the resale values of not only Teslas, but the entire EV market. Top-selling EV's saw their secondary-market prices plunge by almost a third in 2023.

Poor resale value isn't the only EV liability biting Hertz -- the company also pointed to the high cost of collision repairs. “For context, collision and damage repairs on an EV can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine vehicle,” Scherr noted in an October third-quarter conference call.

I received an email from Hertz yesterday encouraging my to rent an EV by giving me a free day:

 

[glhs837]

I received an email from Hertz yesterday encouraging my to rent an EV by giving me a free day:

If the price is right and the logistics work out and you are okay with iot, good deal. Heading to San Antonio in April, but there were no deals compare to the mid size I usually rent. Might have gotten one in Norway after that, but the draw of having a manual for my 45 minute each way commute was too strong

 

[GURPS]

China’s Abandoned, Obsolete Electric Cars Are Piling Up in Cities​

On the outskirts of the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a small dilapidated temple overlooks a graveyard of sorts: a series of fields where hundreds upon hundreds of electric cars have been abandoned among weeds and garbage.

Similar pools of unwanted battery-powered vehicles have sprouted up in at least half a dozen cities across China, though a few have been cleaned up. In Hangzhou, some cars have been left for so long that plants are sprouting from their trunks. Others were discarded in such a hurry that fluffy toys still sit on their dashboards.

The scenes recall the aftermath of the nation’s bike-sharing crash in 2018, when tens of millions of bicycles ended up in rivers, ditches and disused parking lots after the rise and fall of startups backed by big tech such as Ofo and Mobike.

This time, the cars were likely deserted after the ride-hailing companies that owned them failed, or because they were about to become obsolete as automakers rolled out EV after EV with better features and longer driving ranges. They’re a striking representation of the excess and waste that can happen when capital floods into a burgeoning industry, and perhaps also an odd monument to the seismic progress in electric transportation over the last few years.

 

[GURPS]

Tesla Stock Taking a Beating As Electric Vehicle Demand Plummets​

As Joe Biden and governors like California’s Gavin Newsom try to shove electric cars down our throats, it’s become increasingly clear that the general public isn’t eager to jump aboard just yet. They’re expensive, can fail in cold weather, and aren’t good for people who drive long distances because they need recharging. For certain people, they’re perfect for their lifestyle, but for others, they are definitely not ready for prime time.

The news didn’t come as a huge surprise for Tesla, as the company predicted it in a January letter to investors:

The company blamed the decline in part on phasing in an updated version of the Model 3 sedan at its Fremont, California, factory, plant shutdowns due to shipping diversions in the Red Sea, and an arson attack that knocked out power to its German factory.
In its letter to investors in January, Tesla predicted “notably lower” sales growth this year. The letter said Tesla is between two big growth waves, one from global expansion of the Models 3 and Y, and a second coming from the Model 2, a new, smaller and less expensive vehicle with an unknown release date.

 

[phreddyp]

Tesla Stock Taking a Beating As Electric Vehicle Demand Plummets​

As Joe Biden and governors like California’s Gavin Newsom try to shove electric cars down our throats, it’s become increasingly clear that the general public isn’t eager to jump aboard just yet. They’re expensive, can fail in cold weather, and aren’t good for people who drive long distances because they need recharging. For certain people, they’re perfect for their lifestyle, but for others, they are definitely not ready for prime time.

The news didn’t come as a huge surprise for Tesla, as the company predicted it in a January letter to investors:

Stevie Wonder saw this coming!

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Anyone still hanging on better get outand lock in your gains. Tesla's cycle as a growth stock is waning.

Fisker is in real trouble but even that made me money a bit more than a year ago.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Oops Harris Teeter chargers

 

[Kyle]

Oops Harris Teeter chargers

If nothing else, now they can be a curb stop.

 

[glhs837]

Oops Harris Teeter charger

Would be funny if a Tesla parked nearby caught this on Sentry Mode....

 

[Kyle]

Would be funny if a Tesla parked nearby caught this on Sentry Mode....

Do they record the stuff they run into?

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Do they record the stuff they run into?

I would like to know what hit it. Most people are bad at backing, I assumed that a Tesla would keep someone from doing that.

 

[stgislander]

I would like to know what hit it. Most people are bad at backing, I assumed that a Tesla would keep someone from doing that.

Wasn't a black person. They back in everywhere.

 

[glhs837]

Do they record the stuff they run into?

Yep. That's how we know that it's almost always driver error.

 

[GURPS]

Edison Motors gets screwed by very fishy British Columbia Government grantmaking process

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Oops Harris Teeter chargers

Apparently it still works. Yesterday there was a single Tesla at the charging stations and they chose to use the busted one. Probably so they could have something to talk about instead of not owning a TV or being a vegan.