Since the United States attacked Iran in February, the price of crude oil has soared more than 50 percent, causing gasoline prices to rise to a national average of $4.56 a gallon, according to AAA, the driving and leisure travel membership organization. That’s $1.38 above the price per gallon a year ago.
Travelers are feeling the pressure. In a new study from personal finance website WalletHub, 59 percent of Americans said high gas prices were affecting their travel plans, and more than half said they planned to spend less on travel this summer compared to last.
To do this, many are turning to renting electric vehicles and partially electric hybrids. Since mid-April, Turo, a platform for owners to rent their cars, has seen a 28 percent year-on-year increase in bookings for electric and hybrid vehicles. Hertz said it had also seen an increase in interest in recent months.
All-electric vehicles save money for owners who can charge them at home. The United States Department of Energy estimates that the savings are up to $2,200 per year on average.
But the calculus changes when you lease an electric vehicle and pay commercial rates for a fee. Here’s how to do the math (both in money and time) and where to look for electric and hybrid vehicles.
Where to find alternative vehicles
Travelers can find electric vehicles at agencies across the country, with a greater concentration where charging infrastructure is more robust.
California, a leader in charging availability, has nearly 65,000 public charging ports, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. New York has nearly 20,000. Florida, Texas and Massachusetts have more than 10,000.
Electric vehicles make up about 3 percent to 5 percent of the rental car fleet nationwide, according to the American Automobile Rental Association, a trade group.
Most hybrid rentals do not require users to plug in to charge and are widely available.
Charging is cheaper than gasoline
Like airfares, car rental prices change with demand (weekends are typically more expensive than weekdays, for example) and rates vary by destination.
That said, EV prices generally mirror those of standard cars, depending on where they fall on the economy-to-luxury spectrum. A Tesla is priced like a premium car compared to a mid-range Ford Mustang Mach-E.
The greatest savings occur in the power supply of the electric vehicle. If a traditional car gets 25 miles per gallon, a 200-mile trip requires eight gallons of gasoline. Based on the national gas average, that trip would cost $36.48.
In a compact electric vehicle like a Nissan Leaf with a 62-kilowatt-hour battery (which has a range of about 200 miles), charging at the average electric rate of $0.418 per kilowatt-hour, according to AAA, would be $25.92, or $10.59 cheaper than fueling up.
Session fees may be charged; most range between $0.25 and $2, according to electric vehicle sales site Recharged.
Hybrid advantages
Hybrids combine a traditional combustion engine and an electric motor. Instead of connecting to a power source, the battery works by regenerative braking and using the motor.
This system offers better fuel economy than combustion engine cars. For example, the 2026 Honda Accord Hybrid gets an estimated average of 51 miles per gallon. By comparison, fuel economy ratings for standard Accord models start at 28 miles per gallon.
In the 200-mile trip scenario, a Kia Niro Hybrid that Hertz lists as getting 40 miles per gallon would cost $22.82 in gas. That’s $13.69 cheaper than a traditional car and $3.10 less than the electric vehicle.
With hybrids, “you don’t have to alter your behavior, you get the benefit of better fuel economy, and you don’t have to worry about range anxiety” or where to get your next charge, said Chris Luth, chief operating officer of AutoSlash, a service that rents cars and monitors reservations for price drops.
Hybrids cost more than economy cars and sometimes more than electric vehicles. At San Francisco International Airport in June, a Kia Niro Hybrid from Hertz was $79 per day in a recent search, while an economy car was $63 per day. Electric vehicles were not included.
During the same dates, daily rates at Avis included a compact Kia Soul for $36, an electric Kia Niro for $58 and a Toyota Prius hybrid for $81.
Excluding taxes and fees and using California’s average fuel price of $6.143 per gallon and its average charging rates of $0.467, a one-day rental for a 200-mile trip from San Francisco with Avis would total $88.20 for the electric vehicle (assuming a 250-mile range with the 64.8 kilowatt-hour battery) and $105.57 for the hybrid that gets 50 miles per gallon.
Crushing range anxiety
Has the higher cost of a hybrid made you turn back toward an electric vehicle? Now you have to deal with range anxiety.
Most new electric vehicles offer between 240 and 320 miles on a full charge, according to Recharged.
How and where you drive can affect battery usage. Accelerating aggressively will drain the battery faster. So can air conditioning and heating.
Driving in cold weather or on mountainous roads requires more energy. Electric vehicles are also less efficient at long-distance driving compared to city driving, so the battery may drain faster on a highway trip.
“One good thing about mountain driving is that after you go up the mountain, you come down the other side and the car gets that energy back,” Luth said.
He once took his Tesla EV on a 10,000-mile road trip from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest and back through areas with many chargers, including California, and those with few, such as Wyoming.
“You have to be careful and load a lot on the interstates or plan your route carefully,” Luth said.
Teslas have patented systems that plan routes and stops. Other EV drivers can use apps like A Better Routeplanner and PlugShare.
The hurdle of loading time management
Charging an electric vehicle battery is nothing like a five-minute fuel stop.
It depends a lot on the charger. Most public charging stations offer Level 2 AC and slower DC fast charging. Level 2 can take between four and 10 hours to fully charge, according to EV Connect, which provides charging station management systems for electric vehicles.
DC fast charging takes between 20 and 60 minutes depending on the vehicle. (An EV charging calculator will tell you how long a charge will take.)
Even using the fastest chargers, recharging the battery not only slows down long-distance trips, but can also prevent returns to the agency.
Hotels are increasingly adding electric vehicle chargers, allowing for convenient overnight charging, but if you have to drive some distance before returning the car, you may need to install a charging stop.
The policies are not standard, but most agencies require EV renters to return their cars with at least a 70 percent charge. Rates go into effect if the vehicle is below the minimum. Avis charges $35 if the car is between 10 and 70 percent charged. Below 10 percent means another $35 fee.
“One of the biggest obstacles is having to charge before returning,” Luth said, explaining that the recharging speed slows down as the battery gains strength. It could quickly go from 30 to 70 percent, he added. “If you’re supposed to return the car with a 75 percent charge and the nearest charger is 15 miles away, you may have to charge at 85 percent to get to 75 percent, which could take an additional 20 to 30 minutes.”
Hertz offers a $35 recharge fee to get the car back at any charge level.
Turo allows renters to return vehicles with the same charge they had when they picked them up. If the deficit is less than 10 percent, there is no penalty; if it is between 10 and 20 percent, the fee is $25.
Is a combustion engine cheaper?
In some cases, yes. If you can get an alternative vehicle priced close to that of an economy car, you’ll come out ahead. But the wide availability of standard cars at low rates often outweighs the savings from renting an electric vehicle or hybrid, depending on how far and where you’re going.
In the California scenario, driving 200 miles in a Kia Soul (which gets about 30 miles per gallon and was listed at $36 per day on Avis) would cost about $40.95 in gas for a total of $76.95, before taxes and fees. In price, it beats the electric vehicle by $5.25 and beats the hybrid by $28.62.
A better model could tip the equation. As they say in the car business, your mileage may vary.
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