Last week, the rental giant Hertz made a fairly stunning announcement that it was offloading 20,000 electric vehicles from its fleet and replacing them with gas-powered cars — shrinking its EV segment by a third.
Hertz didn't directly point a finger buuuuuut it's pretty clear Tesla is largely to blame, my colleague Peter Valdes-Dapena writes.
There are a few reasons Hertz is ditching a chunk of its EV fleet.
Of course, there are bottom-line financials: Despite costing less to maintain, EVs have higher damage-repair costs and also depreciate faster than gas-powered cars.
But also: They can be super crash-y.
Apparently, when people switch from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars, they tend to crash more, according to research by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which analyzed insurance data.
Among their findings:
- When switching to EVs, the frequency of insurance claims rises by 14.3%. The amount that has to be paid out also increases by 14.5%
- The increase in incidents is highest during the first year after drivers get the new electric vehicle, but then tapers off after that, presumably as people get used to the new model.
- There is much less of a problem when a driver changes from a gasoline-powered vehicle to another gas-powered one.
This brings us back to Tesla.
In both cases – Hertz's announcement and with the LexisNexis analysis – "electric vehicles" largely means Teslas.
Teslas accounted for 80% of Hertz's EV fleet. They also make up the majority of new EVs sold in the US.
New EVs do have some quirks drivers have to adapt to, Peter explains.
In many ways, there is little difference between driving an internal combustion-powered vehicle and an electric model like a Tesla. But there are some key differences...
- Tesla vehicles do not have a "Start" button to turn the vehicle on and off. Once the driver sits down, it is ready to drive. When the driver gets out, the vehicle turns itself off. (Neat!)
- With no engine, there's no familiar engine sound or vibration, so the difference between on and off can sometimes be harder to discern. (Weird, but OK...)
- Some EVs also have "one-pedal driving," which slows the vehicle rapidly when the driver lifts off the accelerator pedal, rather than simply allowing it to coast, potentially creating confusion in an emergency. (One pedal? What!?)
Perhaps the most important difference, at least for insurance purposes, is that Teslas are both very fast and very heavy.
With their powerful electric motors, Teslas can accelerate much more quickly than typical gasoline-powered models.
See here: A Tesla Model 3 Long Range — not even a particularly performance-oriented version — can go from zero to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, according to Car and Driver. The BMW 330i, by comparison, takes more than a full second longer to reach that speed. The Tesla Model 3 Performance can do it in 3.1 seconds — the kind of speed more traditionally associated with high-performance sports cars.
It might seem obvious, but: Heavy cars that go really fast hit things more often, and hit them harder.
And without that satisfying engine hum you hear when you step on the gas, EV drivers may be less aware of just how fast they're going.
Bottom line: Heavy + speedy + not understanding how the pedal works or how fast you're going = high risk of gnarly crash.
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