Electric Car Range Anxiety

Rental car drivers aren’t plugging into electric vehicles (EVs), largely because of fears the batteries will die. In fact, people who drive off in electric vehicles from Enterprise Holdings Inc., the biggest U.S. auto renter, often bring them back to trade for a car that runs on gasoline, says Bloomberg.

Limited range is holding up demand for electric vehicles nationwide, both in rentals and sales. “People are very keen to try it, but they will switch out of the contract part way through,” Lee Broughton, head of sustainability at Enterprise, said in an interview. “Range anxiety makes them think they can’t get to a charging station.”

Apart from Tesla’s Model S, which has a maximum range of about 300 miles (483 kilometers), most electric vehicles run out of juice in less than 100 miles. The Leaf models in Enterprise’s fleet are rated for about 75 miles.

Consumers are unlikely to show more interest in renting electric cars until they can go farther before topping up the battery, especially given the lack of public charging stations, said Enterprise’s Broughton.

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