I rented an electric vehicle in the USA (and regretted it)

On a recent trip to the USA, I decided to rent an electric vehicle (EV). 

It seemed a sensible decision at the time. EVs were, surprisingly, cheaper to rent than traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars (or perhaps not so surprisingly, given that travellers are shunning rental EVs). I’d save some money on petrol, and charging infrastructure, I figured, was developed to the point that it’d be little different from driving an ICE car.

Besides, my first time renting an EV in the States had gone pretty well. Back in January 2023 the MileLioness and I were in Orlando and rented a Polestar 2 LR. It was a really great experience for us because the car was fun to drive, our hotel had charging stations that were so cheap they were virtually free, and we never travelled far enough in a day to require charging anywhere else.

This time round, however, things were very different…

EV charging woes for tourists

For my second EV experience in the USA, I rented a 2023 Kia Niro EV from Hertz, driving it from San Francisco to Napa, then down to San Jose.

A Niro might not sound very sexy, but I have few complaints about the car itself (other than Hertz has stopped even pretending to clean its cars). There’s something delightful about driving an EV, from how whisper quiet it is to how quickly it picks up when you put the pedal to the metal. What’s more, it came chock-full with techy features like GPS-linked smart cruise control that automatically detected when I entered a different speed zone and adjusted the speed accordingly. When I used that in conjunction with the lane-keep assist, the car practically drove itself on the highway.

However, I have plenty of complaints about the charging experience, especially as a tourist. At 230 miles per charge, the Niro’s range was significantly lower than what I had previously with the Polestar 2 LR (340 miles). What’s more, at pickup it was only 50% full, which meant that after just an hour or so of driving, I was already starting to look for a charging station.

That opened up a whole can of worms. 

Problem 1: Finding a fast charger

For the uninitiated, there’s three levels of EV charging, as illustrated below. 

Obviously, everyone wants a Level 3 charger, but even though those charge quickly, the wait times can be very long nonetheless because they’re in high demand. 

To complicate matters further, the dynamics of charging are not at all like refuelling an ICE car, where people don’t usually hang around the gas station for longer than they have to. Because chargers are located at places like malls, offices and residences, the tendency is for drivers to leave their cars parked and run errands in the meantime. So you could be queuing with no idea when the owner will return to relinquish the spot.

Problem 2: Downloading the charging apps

As it turns out, paying for charging is not as simple as tapping your credit card on a reader, not for most charging stations I encountered. The vast majority demanded that I download an app to even find out the rates. 

That would be annoying, in and of itself, but the bigger problem was that the apps weren’t even possible to download unless your app store location was set to the USA (what on earth do they expect tourists to do?).

While I’m tech savvy enough to find the required app on APK Pure and sideload it, that led to yet another problem. Because of the recent spate of scams in Singapore, our banking apps now police your phone like the gestapo. If they so much as detect a sideloaded app (or developer mode, in the case of Maybank), they scream bloody murder and refuse to work until you uninstall it.

That made it really inconvenient to keep the charging apps on my phone, and in retrospect I should have brought a spare phone, just for installing these.

Problem 3: Registering for an account

Assuming you can install a charging app, your next problem is registering for an account. Before you charge, most apps want you to sign up for an account (if only to get more of your personal data), and verify your phone number- and many of them will only send OTPs to USA mobile numbers. 

I don’t usually get a local number when I travel, because I rely mainly on data from my Eskimo plan. This meant I couldn’t use any app that needed mobile number verification.

Problem 4: Paying with an overseas card

Thought we were done? Nope. Assuming you can register for an account, the next step is to make payment, and some apps refuse to accept non-US cards. 

I’m fortunate enough to have a US credit card (well, technically anyway; it’s the long-discontinued UOB Virtual AMEX) so at least I didn’t have to tear what remaining hair I have out over this. But I imagine it’d be a problem for most tourists.

Problem 5: Planning your holiday around charging

When I do a road trip with a regular car, refueling is a task that fades into the background. It’s so simple and routine that I can barely remember any of my stops- and that’s the point.

I can’t say the same about an EV, where the issue of charging invariably forced itself front and centre. It wasn’t just the trial and error involved in finding a charger that (1) wasn’t being hogged (2) didn’t force me to download an app (3) wasn’t “under maintenance”, it was that once I found one, I had to sit in the car and wait while the battery slowly charged (because more often than not I could only get a Level 2 charger).

I soon realised how silly it was that I was planning my trip around charging stations, and I started to ask myself: why am I wasting my precious vacation time (1) looking for a charger and (2) waiting to charge?

Sure, I’m saving some money on petrol (though some of the Level 3 chargers were surprisingly expensive), but the picture becomes less rosy once you factor in the time lost and frustration involved.

What about a Tesla?

My charging experience would probably have been quite different had I rented a Tesla instead, thanks to their wide network of Superchargers (which at the moment don’t work with non-Tesla vehicles).

But having driven a Tesla several times in Singapore, I can’t say I like it very much. It drives so differently from a regular car that you need time to adjust (e.g. taking your foot off the accelerator leads to sudden braking, instead of cruising to a stop like with an ICE car), there’s no dashboard to refer to, and I really hate this trend towards touchscreen everything. I mean, would it kill you to add a few physical buttons so I can adjust the air con without taking my eyes off the road?

The way I see it, driving a Tesla involves too much of a learning curve. If you already drive one in Singapore and are used to all its idiosyncrasies (seriously, how many screen taps does it take to turn the wipers on?!), by all means go ahead. Otherwise, those used to driving ICE cars will find the Polestar 2 and other EVs to be an easier transition.

Conclusion

After my recent EV experience in the USA, I probably wouldn’t be willing to rent another EV for a holiday until recharging is as simple as refueling an ICE car: drive up to a station, make payment (without the need for an app), and leave with a full tank in no more than 5-10 minutes.

Keep in mind, all this was in an English-medium country. I can’t even imagine how complicated it’d be if I were visiting a country where all the apps and infrastructure were in a language I don’t speak, or which use some local payment solution I don’t have. It just adds unnecessary stress to your holiday, and I’d much rather my memories be of sightseeing and dining, not frantically searching for a charging point.

If there’s any consolation, most of the issues I encountered will probably be resolved over the next 5-10 years as battery tech improves, more charging stations get built, and operators finally realise that maybe tourists also need to charge their cars too. Until then, however, I’ll be sticking to ICE cars, preferably a hybrid if possible.

What’s your overseas EV rental experience been like?