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If you've filled up recently, you don't need me to tell you gas prices are high. And prices will only soar higher. In fact, the national average for a gallon of gas hit $3 this week. That's the highest price per gallon in more than six years.
A pipeline hack, a shortage of gas delivery drivers and increased demand are all driving the price hike. On top of the high gas prices, there's a major shortage of rental cars right now. That has many people looking for alternatives and specifically asking if you can rent an electric or even a hybrid car.
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The short answer is that you can, but it may end up costing you a lot more than you'd save in gas.
In This Post
How hard is it to find an electric car right now?
© The Points Guy(Photo courtesy Tesla)
It's not fun trying to find any cars right now. That's true of rental cars whether they are "green" or not. My colleague Andrew Kunesh
wrote an in-depth article that covers the trend nicely. Essentially, many rental companies sold off inventory at the height of the pandemic. Now, the surge in demand is meeting a much lower supply of cars. It's hard to buy cars, too - though many attribute that issue to the shortage of necessary parts on the assembly line.
Creator of Travel Therapy TV, Karen Schaler, says after trying for months to rent or lease an electric car in Arizona and finding none available, she ended up having to buy a hybrid from California. She had it shipped to her. She told me she was "still on a waiting list." Schaler says unless you are in California, where they have had a head start on electric and hybrid car requirements, there's just not a lot of available inventory out there.
At TPG, we spent a day trying to rent an electric car with very little success. In fact, we couldn't find any from traditional rental car companies. You'll have much better luck with car-sharing companies. In fact, I've discovered a new love called
Turo.
Car share with companies like Turo
© The Points GuyTesla vehicles plugged in and charging in Mountain View, California, August 24, 2016. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Turo is your absolute best bet if you want a guaranteed electric (or, for that matter, even a hybrid vehicle). The new-ish company allows you to rent regular consumers' cars when they aren't using them.
Related: How to never pay full price for a rental car
I signed up for the service (it's an app like Uber) and searched my current location (Anchorage). I found several cars available last minute and there were even a few green cars. I could rent a 2018 Toyota Prius for $149 a day. Looking ahead, there was a 2020 Tesla Model Y I could rent for $130/day.
© The Points GuyTuro Alaska Model Y. (Screenshot courtesy of Turo)
Obviously, not a big selection of electric cars here in Alaska, but a search in Los Angeles found a glut of e-cars available. They included a Tesla Model S for $320 a day, a Tesla Model X for $252/day and a Toyota Prius Prime for $68/day.
Related: Are Turo car rentals covered by credit card insurance?
© The Points GuyTesla Model X 2016. (Screenshot courtesy of Turo)
There was even a hydrogen-fueled 2017 Toyota Mirai for $112/day, which includes the hydrogen fuel you need.
© The Points GuyToyota Mirai 2017 on Turo. (Screenshot courtesy of Turo)
Travel writer Cory Moore told me via Twitter that he had such a good experience renting an electric car via Truro that he "ended up buying one." Keep in mind his warning, however, that when you go to charge, it's not always free. Moore said, "For what it's worth, Supercharging a Tesla at highway speeds is nearly the same cost of $2.50-$2.75 gas."
Matt Bennett actually rents out his Tesla in Missoula, Montana, on Turo. He said in our TPG Lounge on Facebook that ". it's been insanely popular so far. I charge a premium for it and am very selective about who I rent to, but it's been lucrative."
Several readers in the Lounge mentioned they were too worried about finding charging spots to rent electric cars.
Kyle Gossman made perhaps the best point, however, when he said, "For the most part, the added cost of the rental is going to far exceed your gas savings." Gossman rented his own Tesla out back in 2018 and said, "Overall, owning electric cars carries significant advantages to me. We have not owned a gas car in over five years. But when traveling, I still rent gas cars because of the lower cost and flexibility."
Rent an electric car from one of the big rental companies
If you want to rent an electric from one of the big car rental agencies, you're going to have your work cut out for you. We checked random summer dates in June and July using airport locations in major cities, including New York, Chicago, Philly, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We did find some hybrid models but totally struck out on fully electric cars. Very few car rental sites even mention electric cars (except for Sixt).
Related: The Critical Points: Five steps to a perfect car rental
All except Thrifty at least claim to have options for hybrids, but between lack of availability and misleading category options, it's difficult to actually book one. Budget was the only site that seemed to make it easy.
Most companies list midsize hybrid as its own category on the "car types" page, but then when you try to click through to reserve one, it just shows all midsize cars with no way to make sure it's a hybrid.
Alamo
They claim to have hybrids (see link), but I did several searches for random summer dates in a few major cities (New York, Philly, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle), and there's nothing available. Unsure if it's because of the type of car or because of the general rental shortage.
Alamo even has an electric landing page, but "no availability" is the order of the day.
© The Points Guy(Screenshot courtesy of Alamo)
Avis
Yes, Avis offers several hybrid models, including the Toyota Prius hybrid, the Hyundai Sonata hybrid and the Lexus GS 410H F Sport. Again here, availability is tough. I did find a Toyota Prius hybrid in San Francisco in June, but it also says "or similar" when you go to book it, so you aren't guaranteed to get a hybrid. Prices were similar to non-hybrid models. No electric cars at Avis either.
© The Points Guy(Screenshot courtesy Avis)
Budget
Budget offers several hybrid models, and I was able to find them available at airports in most of the major cities mentioned above (except Los Angeles and New York) on random summer dates.
Dollar
The Dollar page I've linked lists "Mid-Size 2- to 4-door Hybrid Air" as a category, promising a "Ford Fusion Hybrid or similar." However, when you click through and do dummy searches, it offers cars that fall into the midsize category but which aren't hybrids.
When you go back to edit the parameters, the car type drop-down doesn't list the midsize hybrid category as an option at all, so I'm not sure there's a way to guarantee you'd get a hybrid, especially if you book online. (I also found other random pages, including one for Montreal, that listed Priuses as options, so it might just depend on where you're renting the car.)
Hertz
One of the big players, Hertz, also has a landing page for both electric and hybrid models. Unfortunately, they were hard to book here, too, even though Hertz has been bragging about adding electric vehicles since at least 2010.
National
When I try to make a reservation through the hybrid landing page, it takes me to a page to select a car type. None of the types listed are hybrids.
Sixt
Sixt has a dedicated page for electric cars showing a fleet of electric vehicles like the BMW I3 or the BMW I8, but again we couldn't find those cars actually available anywhere we looked.
Thrifty
Nope. I can't find anything about electric or hybrid on its website at all.
Related: 11 common rental car mistakes - and how to avoid them
What about renting from a car dealer?
You could do something even crazier and buy or lease a new electric car for a week and then return it to the dealer. Don't laugh; Tesla
actually allowed this for a while. Beware insurance issues
© The Points GuyTesla Model X. (Photo courtesy of Turo)
Be aware, too, of insurance when renting electric or hybrid cars. Some policies may not cover high-end cars like fancy Tesla's or BMWs.
Most Turo lenders sell insurance separately on the site. It can be confusing, so do your research. Most Turo rentals I've seen come with Liberty Mutual arranged "through Turo Insurance Agency."
Related: Should I buy insurance when I rent a car?
My colleague Chris Dong took a closer look at the coverage you get via Chase when you rent a car using their cards. The Chase Sapphire credit cards usually offer a primary damage waiver as you pay for your rental with your card. And while Dong says there's nothing specifically against covering electric cars in the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred Card benefits guide, there is a difference with "high-value motor vehicles."
For example, The Chase Sapphire Preferred specifically doesn't cover "high-value motor vehicles," and Chase includes Teslas in the examples.
Our best piece of advice is to contact the credit card issuer if it's not your run-of-the-mill rental to make sure it's covered.
Additional reporting by Chris Dong, Ashley Kosciolek and Andrew Kunesh.
Featured image by Sheila Fitzgerald/Shutterstock.
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