I am considering hiring a BYD Atto from SIXT for a wedding in regional Victoria. It seems to be the cheapest option by far.
Was wondering if anyone has any experience with SIXT or with hiring an EV. Specifically, how does charging work? Do you use an app to pay or do most chargers have pay facilites?
Same as imagine realising on the morning of the wedding that someone forgot to put fuel it.
Not really. Petrol takes a few minutes and everyone is familiar with it. If the wedding day isn't stressful enough as it is, adding something extra that people are not familiar with is just asking for trouble. Because, Murphy's Law…..
.
Same amount of planning required:
Step 1 - ensure car is fueled
Step 2 - drive
Step 3 - ¯_(ツ)_/¯
@DashCam AKA Rolts: It's not the planning. It's the doing. One takes 10 minutes and the other takes hours.
@bobbified: If you plan the doing properly, EV charging takes less time because you plug it in and go do something else other than stand beside the car holding the trigger while it fuels.
@bobbified: Show me you have no idea about EV charging without telling me you know nothing about EV charging. The EV’s used by Sixth can go zero to full (nobody goes to zero) in about 45 minutes using DC charging.
@Zaphod42: The DC chargers are not exactly on every corner of the block, so not only would you have to spend time driving there in the first place, you're also assuming that someone isn't already using/queuing for it at the time. So your 45 minutes is going to be your best case scenario.
For this car, the 7KW charger takes 8.5 hours and, at worst, it takes 35 hours using the standard 10A powerpoint!
I'm assuming that someone who hires a car actually wants to use it - not have it plugged into the charger the whole time!
@bobbified: You are very much assuming that OP is going to use the car down to 0 there and would need to keep it at 100%. You generally won't be running your EV down to "charge me or else!" nor will you necessarily be filling it to 100% (though some battery technologies need to to get accurate range measurements etc).
If they treat it like a phone and plug her in at accommodation and jump on a public AC charger for the time they are in the shops when you can, no problem whatsoever. Only fill to 100% when you need to do a long drive (so probably to the hotel or back to the rental place in this case).
@bobbified: I own one so probably have a better idea of the charging rates and access to chargers than someone who doesn't. I am not saying it is perfect but don't believe all the anti-EV hype and boring regurgitated memes. it will get better in time and sooner or later will be the new norm.
Worst would be the when computer say no.
I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that.
Hal
I'm gonna be in no state to drive the day of the wedding.
Hire a Tesla from Hertz with Full Self Driving - coming soon.
FSD not allowed in Australia, I don't think, maybe for Hertz US
Depends where you charge it. At a destination charger, they are usually free. At a DC fast charger, they usually require you to have their app installed.
The main DC fast chargers I have found are Chargefox and Evie. Each have their own app and you will need to add a payment option to these apps.
You pull up, plug the car in, open the app and either scan a QR code or put in the charger ID number and it will start the charger.
I'd add jolt to that list too. The 7kW comes in handy.
There are a lot of facilities like shopping centres with free chargers but these are usually limited to 7kW. This is faster than a normal wall outlet but will still take a while to charge from empty. OP will need to check with SIXT if they provide a type2/ccs2 cable.
Definitely recommend looking at the plugshare to plan the route.
They won’t supply a CCS2 cable. No one does. DC chargers come with their own cables. But yes, a type 2 male to type 2 female cable would be handy, as some shopping centre and motel chargers have no cables.
Also worth checking if it comes with a granny charger (10a brick) for Charing off any power point in a pinch.
Hertz provided a CCS cable with the polestar last year as well as the granny charger.
@md333: I doubt it would have been a CCS cable. CCS is the large DC fast charging cable. It would have been a Type 2 to Type 2 cable, which is the standard cable for AC charging.
Before hiring an ev it would be prudent to see what charging is available at your destination and what’s available on the way there - assuming the range is not enough for one charge.
How far out of Melbourne into regional Victoria are you going?
The further you get out there are less charging stations and further apart you need to plan your trip.
Just remember your travelling can be delayed due to other vehicles charging.
Not every town has charging stations.
Hours of access at some stations have restricted hours(rare).
Some are owned by businesses and may have other restrictions.
Plan your trip well if you went to Cann River and the charging station there was out of order your stuffed because the nearest charging station is in either Mallacoota or Orbost. Best in these areas charge up before it gets under 150klms of charge less. Some parts of western Victoria are similar.
Non ev vehicles parked in these charging bays it does happen either due to convenience (location), ignorance or just selfish behaviour.
Does the ev vehicle you hire carry charging adapters for different charging stations?
Plan your trip!
can be delayed due to other vehicles charging
Supposedly a particular brand of EV parking in front of chargers for extended periods after finishing/not even charging is also becoming a thing now?
Best in these areas charge up before it gets under 150klms of charge less.
Talking to an EV owner who said that when travelling distance rather than run her long range battery near empty and then have to make a long stop to fully charge it is more pleasant to make a 10-15min stop at a rapid charger. That way when you feel like stopping for a break you get a decent hit of range and then fully charge at destination on a slower charger.
I hired a Tesla Model 3 from Sixt in Sydney. It came with two 15A plugs, no 10A plug, but I used an international adaptor. I used a 20 metre extension cord to charge in the backyard and reduced the amps to 5 on the Tesla to prevent overheating of the cord. Later I charged it at a Stockland shopping mall for free. The car came with a Chargefox card but I didn't work out how to use it. I returned it half full at no charge.
Another time I hired a Polestar 2 from Hertz in Melbourne for a day. I did 200km with no charging. I was charged $27 by Hertz to recharge.
“I returned it half full at no charge”. Great pun.
Cost $27 for being empty. Imagine if it was an ICE vehicle!!
Curious to know - which did you prefer, Tesla or Polestar ?
Yeah, that's almost the price of hiring an Audi Q2. Not even the size of a Mitsubishi ASX, which is much cheaper. A great pun in a few years' time, but not yet.
The Tesla was different to an ICE car, the graphics were interesting, had adaptive cruise control and seemed to recognise stop signs.
The Polestar was more like an ICE car, did not have adaptive cruise (maybe an option). I had trouble getting the heater to work, which seemed odd for a car possibly designed in Sweden. I liked it being a hatchback.
Depends very much on exactly where you are going I think.
I rented a Polestar from Hertz about a year ago, for some events around Daylesford.
Most of the small towns around there seemed to have a 25kw or 50kw charger, which was very convenient when it is free, but if someone is using it already, they may be a couple of hours.
Our Airbnb did not have an easily accessible powerpoint for trickle charging, if we'd been able to charge overnight it would have been perfect as wouldn't have needed fast chargers at all.
The Polestars did come with free charging from one provider, but Hertz didn't bother telling me about it, I only worked it out because I'd read about it online. Different providers may require apps, but its generally easy to sign up to them.
Overall it was great for us, but did need to go a little out of the way to keep charged. Over a week I think we had 2 completely convenient top ups while having lunch, and one where I had to keep checking if the Daylesford charger was free, ended up going in for an hour in the evening to charge. Even that was only because of a really tight schedule going to Melbourne and back the following morning. Could have got a convenient and fast charge in the morning near Melbourne if I had 20 minutes to spare.
This one might be better and cheaper, also you will get hands on support and training from owners https://www.evee.com.au/
Depends how regional you are going… I wouldnt want to be worrying about where to find a charger when you out in the sticks.
I hired a Polestar from Hertz. Best app I found to get is Plugshare as it will tell you what is around, available and works and then you need to get one for where you are going to charge. You should leave a comment on Plugshare when you are charging so people know it is being used and working. Then you will probably need to get an app for whatever charger you use such as Chargefox, BP Pulse, Evie.
Our accommodation had a free charger (it was a Tesla one but worked on everything with a CCS2 plug which most EVs in Australia have). We charged out on the road, just activate the app with details of what charger you are at. When that is good, then plug it in and it should just charge—I found one machine said to plug in first but it would not work as you had to activate it before plugging in.
Charging time depends on the car and the charger. There seems to be a lot of 50kw/h chargers around which mean a slow charge between 40min to an hour depending on how low you are. Obviously 100kw/h would be twice as quick if it stayed at 100 but they slow down their charging as the battery gets more full to protect it from damage. Car company sometimes limit you to 80% max charge capacity to make the battery health last longer for the car. The slower chargers are normally a lot cheaper per kw.
Remember if you get stuck, you can charge (very slowly) from any power point anywhere. Keep an eye on Plugshare for options. Chances are if you can charge at night, you will never need to worry about charging during the day.
Imagine realising on the morning of the wedding that someone forgot to charge it.