The rocky EV transition and why I rented a gas car from Hertz in Florida

“The Orlando trip made me nervous,” said Citerala, who enjoys driving EVs and started the journey with 100% of charge. “I wondered if we would make it because there was a lot of traffic and the temperature was getting hotter.” Battery range is sensitive to temperature as well as speed.

He made it to Orlando with just 10% of charge left. Using a handful of smartphone charging apps, he found a DC charger in a mall near their hotel (which did not have overnight charging).

Like Moore, Citerala said he’d likely choose a gas car for future trips, though he’d also be willing to rent a Tesla for its superior charging network. “With an EV, you need to plan the trip around charging the car,” he said. “With gas, it just takes minutes to fill.”

Government rules are fast making it prohibitive for manufacturers to offer that choice. California (and 14 other states including New York) will ban new gas-powered car sales by 2035 with the federal government not far behind — with a proposed rule mandating that 67% of sales be EV by 2032. Under pressure from the United Auto Workers and auto dealers (who, like Hertz, have seen EVs sit on their lots), the Biden administration may relax its EV goals, according to news reports.

"It's a concession driven by both politics and by a market reality that is increasingly hard to deny,” said Michigan economist Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group, which studies gas vs. EV costs. "Right now, electric vehicle drivers like me are lucky to see two-thirds of the public chargers working. It is foolish to think two-thirds of Americans are going to trade in their reliable gas-powered vehicles for an EV when the charging network is so feeble. "

The fines are piling up fast. Stellantis and GM have already paid hundreds of millions of dollars for not meeting emissions targets, and — beginning in 2026 — California (and 14 other states, including New York) will require that 35% of automaker sales be battery-powered. Failure to meet that goal will set them back $20,000 per vehicle if they are below that threshold, with the required proportion rising to 68% by 2030.

Just 17% of California sales were electric in 2023 — 72% of them Tesla. Non-Tesla EV sales are just 5%, with 50% of EV buyers, according to S&P Global, returning to a gas car when they go back into the market.

In recent months, Hertz has begun selling off its EV fleet and New Yorker Moore has noticed that Hertz’s Midtown lot has made more gas cars available.

“With a gas car, you just get in and go,” she said. “Refueling just takes five minutes at most.”

On my way back to the Fort Myers airport at vacation’s end, I stopped quickly to top up the Malibu. I didn’t need an app to find a gas station, the pumps worked, and a minute later I was back on my way.

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