If you are like me, the idea of owning an electric vehicle has been on your mind for years. Some people are waiting for EV prices to go down, or battery technology and range to improve. But for those who want to enjoy the experience of driving an electric vehicle without committing to EV ownership, can one be rented?
Yes, electric vehicles are available for rent. There are several US-based rental companies and car-share platforms that rent electric and hybrid vehicles. This article will list the findings to make renting easier for you and help you find the perfect vehicle to rent.
Where to start your search
Whether you are looking for a fun road trip car to create a memorable vacation or trying out your future dream car while saving up for the purchase, renting an EV can be a great option.
Note: I am based on Southern California, and this article will focus on renting in the US, but there are probably even more options when renting in Europe. For example, UFODRIVE is an EV only rental car company with locations in many major European cities. Sixt is another rental car company that offers electric car rentals in France, Germany, and Spain. I have rented a Luxury European SUV from the Sixt location at the Denver airport and received a very good price and service. The only downside is that some of the Sixt rental locations in the US are off-airport…but it wasn’t an inconvenience.
I’ll provide information on most of the major rental car companies, but start with my top two picks for convenient EV renting…..one from the list of traditional rental car companies and one car-share platform.
Enterprise: #1 choice from the rental car companies
Enterprise – not only will they pick you up, (at least during non-COVID times), they were also the easiest and most convenient rental car company for renting an electric vehicle. I assumed that since electric vehicles like the Tesla Model S were categorized as Luxury Elite vehicles, they would only be available for rent at larger airports. I was pleasantly surprised to find that even though I live 60 miles from LAX airport and 25 miles from SNA or ONT airports, I was able to rent a Tesla Model S from my local Enterprise office and it was only $101.16 per day including taxes. Pretty reasonable when you consider that a standard car (think VW Jetta) runs $57.39 per day.
I felt that the mileage allowance was also reasonable at 150 miles per day, and each mile over that is charged $0.99 / mile. Since I was just renting for a day of fun, I kept it under 150 miles.
Turo: #1 choice from the car-share platforms
Turo – this car-sharing market has been around since 2010 and was founded in Boston, but now has their HQ in San Francisco. They have been quite successful during that time, with a number of large investors.
Since Turo is a car-sharing platform, your location will determine the unique selection of available cars. But even though your results may vary, hopefully, it will still be valuable for me to share my local findings for renting an electric vehicle from Turo.
The Turo user interface is clean and simple. I like the fact that you can choose to filter by only Electric or Hybrid vehicles. This makes the search process very quick and easy. For reference, there were 140 Electric vehicles available for rent within 100 miles of my house the week of July 20th. Prices range from $45/day for a Nissan Leaf, $79/day for a Tesla Model 3 (2019) to $138/day for a Model S (2018) and $139/day for a Tesla Model X (2018). Most owners include 100 – 200 miles per day with overage charges ranging between $0.49/mi to $1.65/mi. Trip fees typically add >20% to the rental costs, so my $138/day Tesla Model S was actually $175.36 total. That’s $74 more expensive than the same car from Enterprise, so beware the Trip fees!
| Vehicle | Model year | Price/day | Total (incl Trip fees) | Miles included | Add’l miles |
| Nissan Leaf | 2018 | $45 | $64 | 200 | $0.70 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 2019 | $79 | $110 | 200 | $0.63 |
| Tesla Model S | 2018 | $138 | $175 | unlimited | |
| Tesla Model X | 2018 | $139 | $177 | 200 | $1.65 |
Turo is a great platform and I wish I had invented it. In fact, when I was seriously considering purchasing a Model S, I was trying to justify my extravagant purchase by promising myself I would rent it out thru Turo to help subsidize the monthly payment and hefty insurance premium. When I was honest with myself, I knew it would be a hassle to schedule people renting my car and even though our teenagers drive the family vehicles, it would be totally different watching a complete stranger drive away in your $120k dream car.
Other EV renting options
I checked in with most of the other major car rental companies and had no luck renting an electric vehicle. The following car rental companies state that they offer electric vehicles in their fleet:
Alamo: Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S – I was unable to book any of the hybrid or electric vehicles even from a large airport like LAX.
Dollar: Toyota Prius – I was able to book a Prius at LAX for $52/day with unlimited miles.
Hertz: Ford Fusion Hybrid, Tesla Model S (listed under Dream Cars category) – unfortunately, even though the Model S is my dream car, I wasn’t able to book it at Hertz.
Envoy: This company describes themselves as “a community-based shared mobility platform, providing on-demand electric vehicles.” They work with property owners (apartments, hotels, workplaces) to have dedicated parking and chargers for their fleet of vehicles which include: Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, Tesla Model 3, BMW i3, Chevy Bolt, Volkswager e-Golf, Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e.
Their shared vehicles are primarily located in California, but there are a handful of locations outside of CA (Downers Grove, IL, Flagstaff, AZ, Memphis, Richmond, Vancouver, Boise, Miami, Orlando, Murfreesboro, TN, Brockport, NY, Natchitoches, LA, Columbia, SC, Bainbridge Island, WA…and you can nominate a property to add the service.
BlueLA: has 35 locations in Central Los Angeles and you can join with an annual membership of $60/year and then pay $0.20/minute for the rental. The fleet consists of small 2-door European style EVs with a range of 90-100 miles. I haven’t rented from blueLA, so I can’t comment on the service, but for those who are in the area and need a short term rental and are not interested in owning a vehicle it could be a good option.
Nissan USA: They do rent vehicles from select Nissan dealerships, and I contacted the Nissan dealer in Riverside, CA to find out if they would rent me a Nissan Leaf…still waiting to hear back. Their standard rental fleet: Altima, Kicks, Rouge Sport, Sentra, Versa
EV car sharing programs that didn’t make it
I know of a couple of electric car-sharing companies that recently shut down.
BlueIndy: I saw this service during a business trip to Indianapolis. They had 2 small EVs parked at the Marriott I was staying at and I thought it was a great idea. I had already rented a car at the airport, and needed something larger than the 2-door European style EV because I was transporting customers. But under different circumstances, it would have been a great option. Unfortunately, the company wasn’t able to get the car-sharing program to critical mass. Like any subscription or car sharing service, if you can’t get a large enough base of customers / user built up, it’s impossible to be commercially viable.
BlueIndy closed on May 21, 2020. Over the four years that were in service, they have 11,000 members and 180,000 rides. Americans, or at least Hoosiers living in Indianapolis love their cars, and were ready to make the switch to car-sharing.
Maven: it is the now-shuttered Car Sharing platform owned by GM. The concept was that Maven would rent Chevy Volt and Bolt to Uber and Lyft drivers. It launched in 2016 and made its way to 17 cities, but the service had been slowly shrinking and the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be too much to an already failing company.
Suggestions:
At least in my experience, I would recommend sticking with Enterprise and Turo if you are looking to rent an electric vehicle either for an extended test drive before you buy, fun road trip, or just zooming around town!
Have fun and let me know in the comments your experience renting an EV or if you have other EV rental options in your area.