All about electric rental cars

[Bentley]

The trend are electric cars. Forcasts announce by 2035 at least 60% of global vehicle sales will be electric cars. Lots of renters wonder how to rent an electric car in an easy, practical and economical way.
Big car manufacturers like Volvo, Ford, Mercedes or Volkswagen have already defined goals to increase the production and sales of electric cars. Others will follow within short. The reasons for such a market trend are environmental aspects and the reduction of pollutant emissions. Also potential savings with such electric vehicles when it comes to fueling can no more be ignored.
As far as the cost of an electric vehicle is concerned in USA it should become as cheap as traditional models as early as 2024. As an example Ford even plans to produce more than 2 million electric vehicles annually by 2026. An impressive figure!

As an other example in the UK from 2030 onwards manufacturers will only be allowed to sell electric cars. In Europe, in general, the deadline seems to be 2035.


But now a very basic question: How does an electric car work?

An electric cars simply takes electricity from the grid by plugging at a charging point. The electricity is stored in rechargeable batteries that power the electric motor, which finally turns the wheels. By the way electric vehicles are as easy to drive as cars with traditional fuel engines.
What types of electric cars are existing?

One category are models that run purely on electricity. These are pure electrical cars. They are charged when plugged in. The other category which in addition to the possibility of running electrically, can also run on gas as usual. They are called plug-in hybrid cars. Cars out of this second category are still equipped with a traditional fuel engine, that is started if the car runs out of charge.

The charging of both categories is taking place by connecting the car to a public charging station or with home power.

The issue always is the charging speed for electric cars:

The slow charging is rated up to 3kW. The corresponding charging time is 8-10 hours.

The Quick charging is rated at 7Kw or 22kW. The corresponding charging time is 3-4 hours.

Then there is the fast charging option which is rated from 43kW onwards. This results in a corresponding charging time of 30-60 minutes.

Users have to take into account that there is a weather interference with the quantity of energy your electric car consumes. During summer time the reach is greater, in winter it’s less.

Now you should be ready to rent an electric car!

One of the fleet leaders in terms of availability of pure electric cars and also plug-in hybrid cars is Sixt.