Hertz LEAF Rentals in NYC

[palmermd]

I've been in touch by email with the Hertz EV Project Manager about LEAFs in NYC; she says "very soon".

I've been in touch with the chat at http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/ and they said I should have my car "very soon" also.

 

[crowned]

I was invited to drive a Hertz Leaf last month by the project manager--the car was excellent--almost more normal than a normal car. Here is a link to my blog post about it:

http://onegallon.blogspot.com/2011/01/driving-nissan-leaf.html

I've been in touch by email with the Hertz EV Project Manager about LEAFs in NYC; she says "very soon".

 

[tps]

"Very soon" is here! I've booked the Hertz LEAF for the afternoon in a couple weeks!

 

[tps]

How many "additional drivers" does a Hertz rental contract have space for

The LEAF is part of the Connect by Hertz car sharing program; you have to be a member to reserve and drive the LEAF. Membership is $50/yr (I think, because I took advantage of a deal that if you signed up for membership before last Christmas, the first year membership was waived). I'll probably not talk with anyone when I go to pick the car up; I'll just pass my membership card past the RFID reader behind the windshield and it'll unlock the doors, I get in and drive away. When I'm done, I'll return the car to it's parking spot, grab the RFID card from the sun vison to activate the charging dock, plug it in and go home. I think it's entirely self-service!

 

[tps]

Well, I had my chance to drive the Hertz NYC rental LEAF this afternoon. I should start by saying its parking space is a little hard to find, but when I finally found it I immediately recognized the (to me) distinctive profile. But apparently no one else does! Except for a guy who asked when he saw me unplugging the charging cable, others seemed to see it as just another car. When Hertz said this was a "new shiny Nissan LEAF", they were'nt kidding. There was a little more than 220 miles on the odometer, and I left it with a bit less than 270.

The LEAF worked really well in the New York City traffic. Both the acceleration and braking we very responsive and I had no trouble merging and changing lanes and fitting smoothly into the traffic flow. One thing I quickly learned once I got to the Palisades Parkway, where traffic was lighter was that I had to pay attention to the speedometer. With the smooth and subtly powerful acceleration and no engine noise, I was going over 65 before I glanced down at the speedometer. Oops... I had no problems with the feel of the steering; it seemed fine. All in all, the driving experience was fairly normal except the I felt the acceleration and regenerative braking were tuned so I felt I had much finer control of the LEAF than a normal ICE car.

I didn't use the LEAF navigation because Hertz had their own system, which worked well. I never looked at the Hertz moving map display; the voice instructions were plenty good to keep me pointed in the right direction.

I give the experience "two thumbs way up".

 

[tps]

One more thing, the range estimate. When I pulled out of the LEAF's parking space at Seward Park, it was showing 96 miles. When I got to the Armstrong Tower in Alpine, NJ after a bit more than 20 miles, it was showing 50 miles. When I got back to the parking space at Seward Park, it was showing 47 miles. Now my drive out was likely somewhat of a climb, so the drive back would have been a bit downhill. I was a little worried when the range dropped 2 miles for every mile I drove on the way out and was surprised that it hardly dropped at all on the way back.

 

[LEAFer]

One more thing, the range estimate. When I pulled out of the LEAF's parking space at Seward Park, it was showing 96 miles. When I got to the Armstrong Tower in Alpine, NJ after a bit more than 20 miles, it was showing 50 miles. When I got back to the parking space at Seward Park, it was showing 47 miles. Now my drive out was likely somewhat of a climb, so the drive back would have been a bit downhill. I was a little worried when the range dropped 2 miles for every mile I drove on the way out and was surprised that it hardly dropped at all on the way back.

Welcome to the world of "Nissan Estimated Miles" ! :roll: Takes some getting used to, but then all is good. (For the sake of "average Joe" Nissan needs to improve on this.) Glad you ended up with the two thumbs :mrgreen:

 

[tps]

I just checked my email to find the Hertz invoice:

Usage: 2h 30m
Distance: 47.57mi
Before tax: $43.50
After tax: $52.15

Not something I'd do every day, but since it will be a while before we'll be getting our LEAFs here in the forgotten 36, I now know I can satisfy my urge, for a price, when I need to.

 

[kmp647]

well I signed up for hertz connect. Have a trip to NYC in 3 weeks. Hitting the auto show and will try to reserve a Leaf to drive for a bit.

Not to thrilled about driving in traffic in Manhattan.

 

[tps]

well I signed up for hertz connect. Have a trip to NYC in 3 weeks. Hitting the auto show and will try to reserve a Leaf to drive for a bit.

Not to thrilled about driving in traffic in Manhattan.

When you go there, you will find the LEAF, which says "Grand Street" is behind the building in the maintenance driveway. It's actually on Clinton St. between E. Broadway and Grand. You can get there by taking the "F" subway to the East Broadway station; the LEAF is just a couple blocks east of that station.

Traffic on the lower east side isn't so bad; you can get to the freeways fairly quickly.

 

[kmp647]

thank you for the details!

I will let you know what happens!

 

[occ]

I give the experience "two thumbs way up".

I assumed the EV smile also came with that?

Thanks for reporting tps. Interesting, so you didn't have to "fill up" when you returned it? Did they charge (no pun intended) by the miles or day?

 

[tps]

Interesting, so you didn't have to "fill up" when you returned it? Did they charge (no pun intended) by the miles or day?

This LEAF is part of the Connect by Hertz car sharing program; they charge by the hour. (I believe day and longer rates are also available.) And yes, they do request that you "fill up" the LEAF. Normally, gas is paid for by Hertz as part of the rental, and each car has a "fuel card" clipped to the visor. In the LEAF, it's a Charge Point card. When you get the car back to it's parking space, you plug in the charging cable and wave the RFID card in front of the charger to start charging. I don't know if there's something built into the reservation system to make sure the car has time to charge between uses, but it was fully charged when I arrived for my turn to drive.

There are a bunch of Columb Charge Points in the New York City area, so presumably you could charge up with the RFID card at just about any of them. Not sure if anyone will do this, probably not on hourly rental rates...

It'll be intersting to see how much use the Hertz LEAF gets. I left it with ~270 miles on the odometer. If other MyNissanLeaf members rent it, maybe they can report the odometer reading so we can get an idea of how much use the car is getting.

I'm looking forward to the day in the (seemingly) distant future when I can have the EV smile every day as I get out of my own LEAF!

 

[tps]

News story about the NYC rental leaf:
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_415/grandstreet.html

 

[tps]

Looks as if they've got a Volt for rent in NYC now. Maybe at some point I'll have to take it for a drive to get a comparison.
http://evgarden.com/hertz-makes-connection-rents-first-chevy-volt-nyc

 

[tps]

Has anyone else rented the NYC LEAF? I jusr went to the Hertz Connect web site with the intention of booking the LEAF for another Saturday afternoon drive and it did not show up at the Seward Park location or anywhere in NYC! What's going on? Guess it's time to send them an email inquiry...

 

[kmp647]

I was all set to rent a leaf when I was in ny for the car show

Signed up for connect and got my card

Then when I went to reserve the car they were all blocked out

They had taken them to the car show for the silly low sped test drive

 

[tps]

I was all set to rent a leaf when I was in ny for the car show

Signed up for connect and got my card

Then when I went to reserve the car they were all blocked out

They had taken them to the car show for the silly low sped test drive

Doesn't seem as if the LEAF is blocked out; the web site reports there are no LEAFs in the NYC metro area. This is strange after the big write-ups it got.

 

[tps]

Well, I went back to the reservation web site and tried various dates. It seems as if the LEAF does not exist in the NYC market on any weekend in May, from Friday to Sunday. However the LEAF is at it's usual Seward Park location during the week. I found does exist on weekends in June, so I booked it then for another drive. Strange that it does not show a reservation conflict on those weekends in May; it shows that the car does not exist! The Hertz Connect web site seems to be a little funky, but I'm not sure what I should attribute this behavior to...

 

[tps]

Just posted, regarding the Hertz Connect Nissan LEAF at Seward Park NYC: The main news is that Connect membership is still free. It's a great way to ease the frustration of the long wait before those of us in the forgotten 36 and even the Tier 2 states can purchase our own LEAFs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoauDWv_F0M&feature=youtu.be

I'll be taking the LEAF for another drive next month. Now if I could just figure out where to go...