Hertz Tesla Return Charge – Why Are They Implementing This?

When you are taking a Tesla car in Hertz car rental, you are supposed to get it back with a certain charge percentage. Otherwise, they will take a special fee from you that is much more expensive than charging a Tesla. Of course, this is ridiculous because you usually don't have time to charge the electric vehicle that you have rented. But the thing is that you have to do it to avoid paying extra money.

Today, we'll tell you everything you need to know about Tesla return charge in Hertz company and we'll also look at other EV rentals to see if the rules are the same.

So, the return charge for any Tesla vehicle that you take from Hertz is 70%. If you return your rented EV with less than 70% of the battery charge, you will have to pay the fee of $35 and this fee is going to go up every single time the electricity gets more expensive. Also, they will charge you an additional $25 if the return charge is lower than 10%.

Here's what we are going to talk about:

• Hertz Tesla return charge - some reasons why they implement it.
• Will you actually be made to pay $35 for an undercharged Tesla?
• Do other car rentals fine you or the EV charge percentage?
• How can you avoid paying this fee when returning your Tesla?

Let's get started!

Why is Hertz using this fee for Tesla charge?

On the one hand, we don't like being limited and we hate all those additional fees that car rentals list in their agreements. On the other hand, how can a car rental company allow everyone to return their Teslas with zero charge and then pay from their budget for charging all those cars?

Also, you should understand that a massive car rental company like Hertz wants to earn money all the time - any car should be trapped in a parking lot for a long time. They have affordable rental prices, so they want their cars to be always moving to earn more money. Charging all EVs would take a lot of time and would significantly deteriorate their revenues.

Here are some reasons they ask you to return any Tesla or other EV with a certain charge level:

• they hate paying for electricity which is not that cheap nowadays;
• they also want to give that Tesla for rent as soon as possible without spending time on charging it;
• the same rule applies to gas cars - you need to return it with a full tank, otherwise, you will pay a special fee;
• they want to keep their Teslas running longer and want to avoid situations when clients would discharge their EVs to zero charge which is bad for the battery pack;
• they want you to do their job and prepare the vehicle for the next rental.

It looks OK because previously you knew the rule to buy a full tank of fuel before returning your gas car. This is what Hertz says when you ask them why they apply this ugly rule about the battery charge when returning the Tesla. But if you think about it, it's weird. I can buy fuel for my gasoline car for 5 minutes. And I will charge my rented Tesla for hours if I don't have access to the fast charger.

So, this is not really convenient - you need to find a supercharger which is not always possible in some regions, or you need to spend hours without a rented car when you may actually need it every hour of the rental period. Although this sounds pretty convincing, Hertz officials say that you may skip the charging stage and return your Tesla with zero charge but you will need to pay $35.

Is it better to charge your rented Tesla or pay $35 to Hertz?

We decided to calculate whether it's OK to pay this $35 if you just don't have time to charge your Tesla. In the US, one kilowatt of energy costs on average $0.18. If you are charging in a supercharger, the average cost per 1 kW is $0.28. The average battery size of the Tesla is 70 kWh, so you will need to charge it maximum to 50 kWh which is more than the required 70%.

Now, the cheap way to charge your Tesla will cost you about $9 (from a household grid or any public charger) while a supercharger will take about $14 for the needed charge. Now you see that charging your Tesla before returning it to Hertz is actually more appropriate for your budget than paying the $35 fine to the company.

But if you include your time in this calculation, things will change. A supercharger will take about 15-20 minutes to charge your Tesla for 50 kWh while a simple charger that gives a maximum of 7 kW per hour will take about 7 to 8 hours to do this job. We hardly ever have so much time to leave our rented Tesla near the charger.

We phoned Hertz and asked them what we can do if we don't have access to the supercharger and we don't want to spend 8 hours charging our rented car. But they didn't want to show any flexibility and said that paying "just" $35 is our only option.

Do other rental companies also take this fine?

We know that there are some companies that don't take any additional money if you return an empty EV. But they have other problems and probably this fee is already included in the price.

AVIS, for example, will take the return charge fine if you get the Tesla back with less than 70% of the charge ($35) and another $35 will be charged if the Tesla has less than 10% of juice in its battery. It's even worse than Hertz!

We also know that Enterprise doesn't take any money for return charge but they have special pricing which includes this charging fee in the total costs.

Some companies like Sixt will give you a discount for future rentals if you return their Tesla full or at least 70% charged. This is the best approach but we feel that they are charging more money as their standard fee, so the charging costs are already included in the price.

If your rental charges for miles, they usually include everything in the price of 1 mile and you don't need to worry about recharging your vehicle. We believe this is the fair way to rent your EV but only if you don't drive a lot. If you are going to drive a couple of thousand miles within one week or less, taking the car from a classic rental company is much cheaper.

Can you avoid paying $35 to Hertz for an undercharged Tesla?

Well, you are in a country where rules are important, so if you take your vehicle and sign the agreement with Hertz, you will have to follow the guidelines of that agreement. But we know some ways you can minimize your expenses. Most of the time, people just don't think about this and they need to pay more money in the end because they get certain fines and additional fees. And while recharging your car before you return it to a rental may be a mess, there are some ways to deal with this.

Here are our solutions:

• You can locate a supercharger near you and then just plan your route on the last day of the rent to charge your Tesla quickly before you are going to give it back to the rental company.
• Also, you may find another fast charger if there is no supercharger around you. This will be a little longer since simple fast chargers are not as powerful as the supercharger, but still better than nothing.
• You may leave your Tesla charging overnight before you give it back to the rentals. Charge it up to 100% and then you will have a hundred miles or so for your last day.
• If you are not going to drive a lot, just charge your rented Tesla to 100% once you get it. In lots of cases, this will be enough to keep the charge more or less close to 70% when the rental period is over. Just charge it a little if it needs some percent to reach the needed 70%.
• Come to the rental company an hour or two earlier and ask them if you can charge your Tesla for a remaining couple of hours because it has only 50 or 60 percent of charge. In this case, they may just take the car and not charge you additional money.

You should remember that you still have 30% of the charge to spare and not pay anything in the end. So, the strategy of charging your rented Tesla at night in your hotel parking or in some public charging station should work in all cases. Most Tesla cars will go about 100 miles for 30% of the battery charge.

Also, you may charge your Tesla every night and get 100% every morning with only a little money spent on charging. This will obviously let you give your Tesla back with over 70% of the charge and avoid paying additional money.