Hertz Is Charging Tesla Rentals For Not Filling Up Gas Tanks

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Hertz has been on a real roll lately. Not only have some customers claimed they were pulled over and arrested by police for supposedly stealing their rental car, now the company is reportedly charging Tesla rentals for being returned without the gas tank being filled first.

EV automaker Polestar might be kicked off the Nasdaq.

Everyone knows you either top off the tank of your rental car or you’ll incur an expensive fee that’s far more than the price of the gas. But with a Tesla and other EVs, there is of course no gas tank. And with Hertz doing a full ad blitz featuring Tom Brady extolling the virtues of renting electric cars, one would think the company wouldn’t pull this sort of thing.

Yet here we are, living in Idiocracy.

According to travel site View From The Wing, one Hertz customer was charged $277 for returning their Tesla rental car with an empty gas tank. The report says that’s not a one-time thing, but instead “seems to be a systemic problem.”

Some customers have fought and had their money refunded, because being charged for not gassing up a Tesla is one of the dumbest things ever. But others have had to eat the extra cost.

This sort of thing is just another reason why you might want to rethink renting a car from Hertz. You could have the misfortune of having your rental Tesla reported as stolen, get arrested, and be charged for not topping off the gas tank, all in one disastrous trip.

Also in the report are claims that customers have been billed a charging fee, apparently for not filling the Tesla’s battery all the way (something you shouldn’t do for normal city driving anyway) as well as being double billed for Supercharging services.

So renting a Tesla or maybe any EV from Hertz comes with all kinds of hidden, silly fees. No wonder the company is offloading so many of these electric cars into the used market.

Update: Hertz has provided the following statement:

"Some customers who rented EVs from us were inaccurately billed a refueling fee, due to a systems error. It should never have happened, and we have fixed the problem that caused it. We also proactively reached out to the customers who were affected and refunded the erroneous charge. To compensate them for their inconvenience, we have offered them a credit toward a future EV rental."

Image via Hertz/Facebook

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