R1T Appreciation Post While Stuck with Rental Car(s)

[Donald Stanfield]

So while I'm visiting NE we had to rent a car as well. We reserved a model Y or equivalent. After standing in the rental car line for 2 hours they gave us a Kia Niro (which they called an equivalent). We took it as I didn't have the energy to fight and they clearly were lacking for cars. Anyway, what a horrible experience. I show 175 miles of range at 100%. We drove 26 miles to my mother in laws house on low speed back roads and arived with 160 miles remaining. Christmas day we took a trip to Road Island. 160 mile round trip so we were clearly going to have to charge somewhere. I was surprised that the infrastructure was quite limited up here but we found a ChargePoint in Warwick so on the way down we stopped there as the range dwindled quickly and we weren't going to make it to our destination and back to a charger. We arived at 40 miles left from the 160 indicated we started with after going only 60 or so miles. We plugged in (125kw charger) and got a max of 54 kw. After about 10 minutes we were sitting at 31! We charged up enough to get us to our destination and a little more to find something else on the way back. Upon the return trip we ended up back at the same charger because the EA in providence I wanted to go to showed full all day. (I was told it's a ride share hub). We had a 2 car wait and when we finally got on a charger again we peaked at 51kw for only about 5 minutes then down to 40. At this point I google the charging specs and see that it peaks at 100kw but typically will see 80kw. Now I'm pissed that Budget gave me this thing. We put in enough juice to get us to an EA in Wrenthem MA. hoping that we would see at least 80 only to get there and max out at 40kw. 3 hours later we made it back to my mother in laws house that really should have been an hour and 15 minute trip. Took the Niro back to Budget yesterday and swapped it out for an EV6. Doing the same loop today so hopefully things will go better! Moral of the story...all EV's aren't created equal and you get what you pay for. I can't wait to get back to my Rivian!

That sounds like a frustrating experience. Now I know, do not get a Kia Niro.

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[boosted20v]

That sounds like a frustrating experience. Now I know, do not get a Kia Niro.

Absolutely! Took the EV6 on the same route yesterday with no such issues. Just a quik charging stip at the outlets for enough juice to get it back to the Airport today.

These rental car companies are pretty uneducated on EV's. When we went to swap the car out as I told them this wasn't equivalent to a model y they said sure it is. All EV's are coded in the system the same. I had to explain charging performace and range to them.