[twriter]

Does anyone know if any rental car companies--specifically here in the San Francisco Bay Area--rent Bolts? I'd like to rent one for an extended (up to a week) test drive before I put down $40K-ish on a new car. One of the reasons I want to do this, rather than just accept the dealer's offer of a 24-hour test drive, is that I want to get a good picture of how I'll have to adjust my life for charging. Sure, no more gas station trips (good bye 4% back on my Costco Visa), but living in a condo, I have no home charging available, and the HOA is not likely to even start discussing the possibility until next year, so I want to start learning how I can start incorporating charging into my routines.



I know from reading Car & Driver's long-term report on the Bolt, that the cost of public charging varies widely. There are about a dozen chargers in the building garage where I work. As I understand it, these are some of the more expensive chargers around, IIRC, 35 cents per kWh. And probably charging a couple of times a week on work weeks would probably serve a large portion of my needs, but I want to experience the entirety of the public charging picture, from finding to using, first hand.



I just hope that if any rental companies do have Bolts, they don't gouge for them.

 

[DucRider]

Don't think any traditional rental car companies will have them. Did a quick look on Turo and there were a few in the Bay area. Not sure what you consider gouging, so I'll let you decide.


Using only public charging is possible, but usually much, much more expensive and inconvenient than home charging.

If you have an assigned space, the HOA cannot prohibit or unreasonably restrict you from installing charging in your spot (at your expense).
https://www.hoalawblog.com/civil_code_4745_electric_vehi_1/

 

[XJ12]

you might be able to find someone that will rent their car through the Maven system that uses Bolts. https://www.maven.com/us/en

 

[twriter]

Don't think any traditional rental car companies will have them. Did a quick look on Turo and there were a few in the Bay area. Not sure what you consider gouging, so I'll let you decide.


Using only public charging is possible, but usually much, much more expensive and inconvenient than home charging.

If you have an assigned space, the HOA cannot prohibit or unreasonably restrict you from installing charging in your spot (at your expense).
]

Not doing Turo. They tried to screw me once. Not dealing with such a scummy company.

That law may work for condo owners, but I rent the condo. Plus, $1 million insurance required?

 

[California]

you might be able to find someone that will rent their car through the Maven system that uses Bolts. https://www.maven.com/us/en

I just looked through their website. They don't seem to have anything in the West.

 

[twriter]

you might be able to find someone that will rent their car through the Maven system that uses Bolts.

I joined Maven as soon as I heard about them. They have never had any Bolts around here (lots of Volts though), and Chevy has replied (on Twitter) that they have no plans to stock any.

 

[Jim Fallston Md.]

if any rental companies do have Bolts, they don't gouge for them.

I would look on line for a dealer near you that has a large inventory and ask for a weekend test drive on the color and equipment you want. I did this and bought the one they let me use.

 

[DaV8or]

To the OP-

How far is your commute? Could you possibly rent a Volt and then only strictly plug it in and not buy gas? Would that help?

 

[twriter]

To the OP-

How far is your commute? Could you possibly rent a Volt and then only strictly plug it in and not buy gas? Would that help?

20 miles each way. But no, it's about getting the full Bolt experience over several days, not just figuring out charging how and when, but the full driving and using experience.

 

[TimBolt]

I don’t want to discourage you, but I doubt that the Bolt would be a good fit for you without a reliable, convenient, and reasonably priced charging location.

EVs are not a good fit for everyone, at least not with the current state of charging infrastructure.

 

[hbrocks]

I'm looking to rent as well.....
Any suggestions in Orange County Ca to check for rental?

Thanks

 

[GregBrew]

I'm looking to rent as well.....
Any suggestions in Orange County Ca to check for rental?

Thanks

Now that I realize you're in The OC, are you also in HB?


What I'm getting at is that if you're local, perhaps we could trade cars for a few days. I'd have to get it approved by The Boss, of course.

 

[hbrocks]

Now that I realize you're in The OC, are you also in HB?


What I'm getting at is that if you're local, perhaps we could trade cars for a few days. I'd have to get it approved by The Boss, of course.

Hey Greg....Ha....that would be awesome! (thank you)
I sent you a PM yesterday but it got rejected because I didn't have enough post!
YES....HB is HB
I just got off phone with O'connel....they said I could come take one for a whole day. I'm Waiting for a callback to make arrangements.
Thank you for your generous offer - I'd love to pick your brain through this whole purchase process.

 

[BoltFan]

One alternative might be, as in my case, checking one out in course of work to drive to training or other job sites; we were lucky enough to have them in our motor pool (both the Volt, Plug-in Prius, etc) so it give a chance to "test drive" in the course of work. I ended up getting a BoltEV after driving both the pre-production plug-in prius and both generations of the Volt. But my first "test drive" of the BoltEV was when it arrived at our dealership from ordering it.

 

[twriter]

I don’t want to discourage you, but I doubt that the Bolt would be a good fit for you without a reliable, convenient, and reasonably priced charging location.

EVs are not a good fit for everyone, at least not with the current state of charging infrastructure.

Yup, I understand that my situation would be more of a challenge than those who own their own homes and the space and infrastructure to install their own chargers. But the thing is, (a) a HUGE number of people live in the urban areas where EVs are well-suited, but where there is a high concentration of multi-family housing, so my situation can hardly be unique, and (b) I'm a techie, and I like being on the cutting edge, even though I do often get sliced by the situation I put myself in.



In some ways, it's really not all that different from living in a place with no laundry, so you have to know where the nearby laundromats are, what their hours are, how much they cost, and so on. (Not to mention saving up all the quarters you get in change--a real challenge these days paying for pretty much everything with a card or Apple Pay.) Everyone's familiar with laundromats--including, for the most part, etiquette--but not so much for EV charging stations, which is why I'd like to find a way to get an extended test drive, to figure out where the charging stations are, what I need to do to use them, how I need to adjust my daily, weekly, and monthly schedule (the latter just like with needing laundromats), and so on. I seriously doubt I'd encounter anything that would prevent me from going ahead with a purchase, but like when I started playing poker, I want to learn about the right things to do and get some practice before I put real money into play.


Also, there's a new anchor tenant grocery store planning to go into the ground floor of our condo complex, and there's a planning meeting for it that I plan to go to, not only to voice my support for the store, but to see if I can talk to the folks bringing in the store, the commercial property owners, or both, to see if they'd consider investing some parking lot or public garage space to install public chargers while I wait for the long process of the HOA considering them for our private garage.

 

[ga2500ev]

I don’t want to discourage you, but I doubt that the Bolt would be a good fit for you without a reliable, convenient, and reasonably priced charging location.

EVs are not a good fit for everyone, at least not with the current state of charging infrastructure.

It looks like that's the entire point of the test drive. It's not clear yet if the "reliable, convenient, and reasonably priced charging location" is out of reach.

With a 40 mile daily round trip, charging doesn't have to be an everyday occurance. An hour on a nameplate 50 kW DCFC can recover over half the capacity of the pack if starting from a low enough state of charge, which translates to about 120 miles of range, which is 3 days or normal driving. So a pair of these DCFC stations along the route would like be good enough to cover virtually all of the OP's charging needs, recharging two, or at max three times a week.

It's one of the reasons I believe that multi unit situations should augment any standard L2 charging infrastructure with medium power DCFC.

ga2500ev

 

[GregBrew]

Hey Greg....Ha....that would be awesome! (thank you)
I sent you a PM yesterday but it got rejected because I didn't have enough post!
YES....HB is HB
I just got off phone with O'connel....they said I could come take one for a whole day. I'm Waiting for a callback to make arrangements.
Thank you for your generous offer - I'd love to pick your brain through this whole purchase process.

Boy, things have sure changed since I dealt with Connell. They flat-out lied to me on the phone about having one on their lot, just to get me in the showroom so they could hard-sell me on a Malibu. Fat chance. They had little interest selling Bolts in December of 2017.


Pick away!

 

[cwerdna]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I'm also in the SF Bay Area and would like to rent one to see if I'm ok with the seats and the car, in general.



Anyone find a means other than Turo? (A co-worker rented a Model 3 from Turo which he felt was worth it, but then the owner tried to pin a whole bunch of damage on him that he knew nothing about. Was a huge hassle but it sounded like Turo finally believed my coworker.)

I've been a Leaf driver for over 5 years and have free L2 charging at work. I'm considering jumping ship to Bolt.

 

[Coastal_Cruiser]

cwerdna, For what it's worth, I am just south of the Bay Area and picked up a Bolt last Friday. I too wanted an extended test drive to see how the seats would get along with my body. I found a Bolt on Turo in the Bay Area so you should have a look. As it happened I did not rent the one on Turo because my local dealer let me have one off the lot for an entire day. I put 400 miles on it and again, for what it's worth, the seats are better than they first seem. They are a little cheesy and narrow to look at, but to my surprise my 6' 2" 225lb frame (all muscle and blood, naturally) experienced no fatigue. I basically forgot about the seats after a while.


I am also putting on seat covers, which will add a bit of cushioning.

 

[California]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I'm also in the SF Bay Area and would like to rent one to see if I'm ok with the seats and the car, in general. ... Anyone find a means other than Turo?

If you can wait a few weeks gigcarshare will have 'hundreds' of Bolts for hourly or day rental in Sacramento through an agreement with City government. They presently have Bay Area rentals specializing in Prius Hybrid. Maybe they have some Bolts there too.

https://gigcarshare.com/sacramento/