Color me skeptical - even if EVs were worse in every way (which clearly isn't true, cheaper to operate and maintain, for example, even if they're not the easiest for long road trips), we might still just have to suck it up and accept that we have to change? Most driving is short trips anyhow, so I tend to think it's just an illusion that everyone needs to be ready for an epic journey at any time - instead of yet another trip to the office or to get groceries. Just rent a diesel for the road trip?
Renting a car might be a viable option if the reality didn't completely suck. I.e. having a reservation doesn't mean you'll actually get a car when you go to pick it up. Or having to wait an hour while the overworked rental agent handles the queue of people waiting to get their cars. Or the agency just being closed because nobody showed up to work that day.
I am somewhat dismissive of this idea of rental to cover for a mismatch in BEV vs ICE capability. It only makes sense when BEV is niche and you are taking advantage of slop in the current fleet composition. It won't help for a population-wide shift to BEV with synchronized demands, i.e. holiday periods where lots more people do their longest road trips per year.
I don't see how you can have middlemen like rental companies take on the burden of peak fleet capacity for the whole economy, anymore than everyone can afford to own their own long-range ICE alongside a more limited BEV. It makes sense for some people, sure, but it seems like across the whole fleet we really need BEV to catch up and be suitable to cover these demands.
Otherwise, we need to address how those demands can be replaced with something else, like airplanes or trains, with more limited BEV rental at destinations. It seems disingenuous to me to suggest everyone can rent an ICE to cover the gap.
I belong to a “car club”, where there are specific cars that live in specific locations (mostly residential streets - there are several within east access of my house). I can book a car using an app, and when it’s time, I can open the car and start my booking using it too.
If you have a neighborhood or off-site car rental location near you the experience is usually far better than airport locations. You also usually save a bunch of taxes and fees that only apply to airport locations.
