NAPLES, Florida — As automakers transition to electric vehicles over the next few years under U.S. government mandates, rental lots offer a microcosm of what the market impact may look like.

So far it’s been a rocky road.

I own a Tesla Model 3, but when it came to renting a car from Hertz while on vacation in Florida this winter, I chose a gas-powered Chevy Malibu. I’m not alone. Hertz — like General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG and other automakers — has been aggressive about moving to an all-electric fleet, only to run up against high costs and customer resistance compared to their gas-fired models.

When it comes to renting a car, internal combustion engines are more convenient, less stressful, more time efficient. Like big automakers, Hertz — the largest rental car company in the United States — has responded by scaling back its ambitions.

Hertz went all in on EVs last year with plans to make battery-powered vehicles 25% of its fleet (330,000 vehicles) by the end of 2024. The company cited EV advantages that include cheaper maintenance, better depreciation costs, city mandates that ride-share services be all-electric, and big federal Inflation Reduction Act subsidies that qualified each EV Hertz purchases for a $7,500 tax credit.

"Hertz is investing in the largest EV rental fleet in North America," Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr said in New York last fall. "New York City (is) a natural accelerator for the most significant transformation that's happened in the auto industry in a century.”

But in practice, EVs have proven problematic for rental customers. New Yorker Lydia Moore, 61, took her first trip in a Chevrolet Bolt she and her wife rented from Hertz in February last year to drive upstate for a weekend. She did not enjoy the experience.

“It was horrible,” she said. “We loved the car, but didn’t know how many miles we could go and where we would charge. The car became the focus of our trip.”

Moore and her wife, Lynn, don’t own an automobile and regularly rent gas vehicles from Hertz in Manhattan. But when they entered their usual 48th Street Midtown location, only electrics were available. “We asked for a gas car, but they only had EVs,” Moore recalled.

Their first charging stop was at a 240-volt, alternating-current Blink charger where they plugged in for two hours and only gained 10% of charge. At the end of the weekend, they found a direct-current fast charger on their way back into Manhattan so they could recharge the car to 75% as required by Hertz’s return policy.

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