Enterprise Leaf renters are not being prepped well

[EVNation]

So lucky thing we were out washing our Leaf in the driveway today. Down the street neighbor cruises by in a shiny new blue Leaf. Ask how he likes it and he says it is a rental from Enterprise and he says he can't get it charged. We ask what happens and he says he plugs in an lights blink but nothing happens.

I look in the car and the Charge Timer is set to only charge on Sunday night for whatever reason. I turn that off then follow him to his place. Plug in the 120V in the garage and it starts charging. While we are talking. Click and it stops and lights are blinking. Looks like it is faulting or something. The power light then just blinks on the EVSE and it doesn't charge.

So it is in my garage getting 240v top off. He is going to try another 120 outlet tomorrow and then call Enterprise if he can't get it to work.

Nice they offer it. Was $90/day but he was getting it paid for by his company for 2 weeks. But they are not prepping people that well at Enterprise about how to use these things. Not checking that the charge timer was set is kind of not nice for renters.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

I'd put money on it that he wasn't plugging into a 20A dedicated circuit. Anyone having that kind of trouble should try multiple circuits till it works if they can't get the ideal 20A dedicated line. I had the same trouble on a circuit in my house, it sure seemed like it should have worked, it was 15 A but may not have been grounded.

mainly I just thinks it's super cool that Enterprise is renting the Leaf and I do hope they do better on the basic instructions.

nice of you to help the person!

 

[EVNation]

I forgot to add the other sucky thing. He had heard Costco had chargers so was going to go there. I told him it wasn't compatible (if even there) and said he should check the charge map. I hit the map and it didn't work. Said no data, so I assume the nav SD card was not in the rental. So no location data.

He had an iPhone so I downloaded him Carstations and set it up just to show J1772. The one at the Redondo Beach pier would be good for him.

The Leaf did have a QC port but I told him that probably wouldn't be too useful for him. I didn't want to go over the whole Mitsubishi thing. It would have freaked him out even more.

 

[mwalsh]

Somebody should let Enterprise corporate know. Sadly though, I expect the rental agents probably know as little as the renters, maybe less.

 

[tps]

Hertz does not do anything special for LEAF renters. I had no problem with the LEAF itself, but I had to call their customer support the first time to help me navigate through the display they've added on as part of their car-share program. I think others have had problems with the Hertz LEAF, though. One time I tried to rent it, the renter before me had not plugged it in when returning it, so it was not charged and I didn't get to rent it. (I asked them to unlock the doors so I could plug it in so it would be ready for the next guy.) Another time a previous renter drove it until it ran out of energy, and it was a bit touch-and-go as to whether Hertz would have it ready in time for my scheduled rental slot. (They did.)

I rented it for 48 hours once and drove it from NYC to my home on the north side of Philly. I used a modified Nissan/Panasonic EVSE to charge it a few times during that rental. While I had it, I showed it to the folks at a couple of Nissan dealers and explained some of its features to them. No problems at all during that 48 hour period. (My biggest problem was getting re-adjusted to my ICE car after experiencing the joys of driving an EV for a couple days!)

While the LEAF may not be a good car for the casual renter who just wants to get in and go, the owners manual is in the glovebox and most problems that might be encountered could be solved by a bit of reading. (I have the PDF of the manual on my laptop, which I studied a bit beforehand.)

 

[smkettner]

I doubt Leaf rental is a random choice, low cost option, or the last car left. Leaf renters most likely know something about the car and want to discover the issues first hand. Just saying they are not completely blindsided.

 

[DarkStar]

Said no data, so I assume the nav SD card was not in the rental. So no location data.

That means they never signed it up for Carwings, so it hasn't downloaded any data yet. If the SD card was missing, nothing would function properly with the center console (no radio, no HVAC, however you can still charge the car ).

 

[edatoakrun]

Hertz has now been renting electric and plug-in cars for almost a year, and the company has learned some lessons along the way.

Among them: "We need more electric cars!"

Specifically, "We've got about 50 electric cars in our fleets now, and we could use another 2,000 to 3,000 if we could just get the vehicles."...

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1067370_hertz-says-we-need-more-electric-cars-after-year-of-rentals" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;