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JoeS

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Phximiev said:
Now all we own is the 'Miev.
Wow, that is quite a testimonial! :mrgreen: About three years ago there was a fellow up in the Northeast (IIRC) who was planning on also having an i-MiEV as his only car, and was working out a deal to swap cars with a neighbor if he needed to make a longer excursion.
 
Exactly, we have friends who can lend us a car and with whom we can also leave the 'Miev for them to try. But, what we want to try again is Turo, which is the rental company (they also have an app) that we rented the Leaf from for 10 days last summer. They have available: a Tesla, a Volt, several Prii, and other hybrids.

We are looking for the change of pace on the next trip.
 
Ok, compliments to Turo regarding our latest electric rental, a Chevy Volt, which we took to Prescott and back. The car performed as advertised, but we notice one fault - lack of good visibility. Otherwise an excellent car:

3XOUGFz.jpg
 
This thread was split off from Cheapest car to own. This thread can be used to discuss ride-sharing services, such as Turo (formerly RelayRides).
 
PV1 said:
This thread was split off from Cheapest car to own. This thread can be used to discuss ride-sharing services, such as Turo (formerly RelayRides).
PV1, thanks for doing that.

Heard good things about Turo and know one EVer who has an idle van which he rents out through Turo to supplement his income. Great way of evaluating a car one might be considering to buy. I had considered renting a Tesla through Turo for our tour around the US, but finally decided I'd rather own... :roll:
 
Tony Seba, in Chapter 5 of his book Clean Disruption, describes the 'car sharing' economy, his initial experiences with Zipcar, and other car sharing companies. My wife and I subscribe to this notion having also used Zipcar (while living in Boston), Turo, and other car sharing/rental companies. I assume that most everyone has rented a car before for example.

So far, our car sharing/renting experiences have well complimented our use of the iMiev.

Seba goes on later to describe the ICE car as the 'Ultimate Waste Machine'. Based on our experiences with our van, we completely agree with this description. In retrospect, we could have eliminated the van, and used car sharing for trips, etc., a long time ago.

In Phoenix, we have Turo and Zipcar for instance, along with Uber and Lyft. We are looking forward to the variety and presume the same positive experience that we had with the Volt, see the post above.

The challenge to us all, including this group, is to reduce our waste. As to ICE cars, it seems that they can be eliminated, or as JoeS posted, shared to reduce the waste.
 
Another good read for EVer's, along the same notions expressed by Seba, is The Great Race by Levi Tillemann.
 
I just tried to use Turo for our upcoming vacation, which will involve flying plus approx 1500 miles of driving. I found absolutely no option that came close to the low cost of a traditional rental agency offering "unlimited miles", and of course those traditional agencies rarely offer hybrids or EVs. The Chevy Volt owner in Atlanta that I tried to rent from would not budge on his excess mileage fees, which would have exceeded the daily use rate.

Unless it's a close friend or family, I've found no cost-effective option in the carsharing economy for long trips.
 
I am sorry to hear that. Our Turo Volt rental included 200 miles per day. We used 321 or so. Our SF trip last summer and the Turo Leaf we rented in SF also included 200 miles per day. We had it for 10 days or so and never exceeded the mileage limitation.

In our future trip planning, we will definitely review the per day and total mileage limitations, a point well worth noting.
 
While bike sharing is not unique to Phoenix, its promoted, it appears, for the same reasons that car sharing is, to wit: of improving the automobile transportation 'grid'. See:

http://www.gridbikes.com
 
Speech by Seba, author referenced above in this topic: http://insideevs.com/tony-seba-says-electric-cars-will-soon-offer-porsche-performance-at-buick-prices/
 
We contacted the Turo owner of the Volt we rented, see above in this topic, to chat about another trip. He traded in his Volt for the 2017 model and has a very high opinion of the car. We may rent it this summer as he still rents it through Turo.
 
Update on BlueIndy posted above: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1104668_blueindy-electric-car-sharing-after-9-months-hows-it-doing
 
Ride Sharing Variation: Our neighbor, on vacation for 6 weeks, lent us their car (with insurance!) and is letting us drive it wherever we want! We are also looking after their house.

It is however an ICE car. :oops:

x8QIg3E.jpg
 
Ok, we've done the beaches and the mountains and driven all over southern CA. We've seen: Tesla model S - 4, Model X - 1, Chevy Volt - 4, BMW i3 - 3, Leafs - 2, about a dozen Ford Fusion hybrids, Fiat 500e - 2, Cmax - 1, and Prius and other hybrids- several thousand or more(?).

Surely there must be more electric vehicles (I've seen more on any day in Phoenix), but a notion sticks with me, that the perceived need for driving long distances in southern CA must be detrimental to the sales of pure BEVs, hence the number of hybrids and particularly the Prius.

Perhaps this will change with the advent of the less expensive 200+ mile BEV. I certainly hope so.
 
Phximiev said:
Surely there must be more electric vehicles (I've seen more on any day in Phoenix), but a notion sticks with me, that the perceived need for driving long distances in southern CA must be detrimental to the sales of pure BEVs, hence the number of hybrids and particularly the Prius.
I'm certain there are more BEVs in California (in both absolute and per-capita terms) than anywhere else in the U.S. Many models are only sold there.
 
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