Electric Rental Car?

[disneylandtour]

So it's far, far cheaper for my next trip to rent an EV at the airport than a traditional gas car. Rental agency has this down as a Kia e-Niro or similar. I'll probably drive to the DVC resort (Beach Club) and then to the parks and maybe Disney Springs. If I get a good reservation time, I'll probably go over to Ohana, too. I absolutely need to drive to Celebration once, hence the rental car versus Mears. How difficult will it be to find a charging station at Beach Club, the parks, etc.? I'm there six days. I'm guessing (hopefully) I'll only need to charge the car once. I've never used an electric car in Orlando before, but it's half the cost.

Thanks for the help.

 

[erionm]

So it's far, far cheaper for my next trip to rent an e-car at the airport than a traditional gas car. Rental agency has this down as a Kia e-Niro or similar. I'll probably drive to the DVC resort (Beach Club) and then to the parks and maybe Disney Springs. If I get a good reservation time, I'll probably go over to Ohana, too. I absolutely need to drive to Celebration once, hence the rental car versus Mears. How difficult will it be to find a charging station at Beach Club, the parks, etc.? I'm there six days. I'm guessing (hopefully) I'll only need to charge the car once. I've never used an electric car in Orlando before, but it's half the cost.

Thanks for the help.

No EV charging at the Beach Club Resort.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS
For your convenience, a number of ChargePoint charging stations are now available in parking lots at various locations throughout Walt Disney World Resort. Arriving Guests may ask a Cast Member for directions to these charge ports, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Magic Kingdom park: 5 spaces—one space at the front of the Medical Parking Lot and 4 spaces at the front of the Zurg Parking Lot
• EPCOT: 4 spaces at the front of the HeiHei Parking Lot
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park: 4 spaces in the Medical Parking Lot
• Disney's Hollywood Studios: 4 spaces at the front of the Mickey Parking Lot
• Disney Springs: 13 spaces—3 on the 5th floor of the Orange Garage, 3 on the 5th floor of the Lime Garage, 3 on the 3rd floor of the Grapefruit Garage and 4 in the Watermelon Lot near the Cirque du Soleil theater
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort: 6 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces
• Disney's Riviera Resort: 2 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge: 2 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces

To use this service, you will need a credit card or a pre-ordered ChargePoint card—available at chargepoint.com. The cost to charge at these stations is $0.35 per kilowatt hour, with a minimum service amount of $1.50. Charging will stop once the vehicle’s battery is fully charged. ChargePoint will “ping” the owners to alert them when their car is ready.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/parking/

 

[disneylandtour]

No EV charging at the Beach Club Resort.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS
For your convenience, a number of ChargePoint charging stations are now available in parking lots at various locations throughout Walt Disney World Resort. Arriving Guests may ask a Cast Member for directions to these charge ports, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Magic Kingdom park: 5 spaces—one space at the front of the Medical Parking Lot and 4 spaces at the front of the Zurg Parking Lot
• EPCOT: 4 spaces at the front of the HeiHei Parking Lot
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park: 4 spaces in the Medical Parking Lot
• Disney's Hollywood Studios: 4 spaces at the front of the Mickey Parking Lot
• Disney Springs: 13 spaces—3 on the 5th floor of the Orange Garage, 3 on the 5th floor of the Lime Garage, 3 on the 3rd floor of the Grapefruit Garage and 4 in the Watermelon Lot near the Cirque du Soleil theater
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort: 6 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces
• Disney's Riviera Resort: 2 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge: 2 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces

To use this service, you will need a credit card or a pre-ordered ChargePoint card—available at chargepoint.com. The cost to charge at these stations is $0.35 per kilowatt hour, with a minimum service amount of $1.50. Charging will stop once the vehicle’s battery is fully charged. ChargePoint will “ping” the owners to alert them when their car is ready.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/parking/

Thanks!. I did look into this before booking. I guess my question is: how hard will it be to get one of these spots for two or three hours. I'm guessing there are no reservation and that each of the charging stations is app credit-card managed? There is one EV station at Yacht Club (next door), but it's marked "restricted," which I'm not sure what that means. The car "should" be able to go 250 miles without a charge.

 

[MICKIMINI]

EV charging stations are competitive on property if you can even find them. Hybrid, yes that would be great. We just returned on Friday and we had a gas SUV. No worries about running out of power!

 

[Mle8308]

Restricted, I believe, means it's for Disney owned vehicles only. I would NEVER get a EV for Disney, especially if you don't currently own one. There are not a lot of charging stations available outside of the parks, and the ones in the parks are usually in use and people do not return to move them once they are charged. And, not all charging stations are always actually working. There's a reason EV's are so cheap to rent - no one wants them. It's one more thing to stress about - trying to find an available and working charging station. Also, if you are going when it's hot, you won't get as much battery use. Spend the extra money and get a gas operated vehicle.

 

[tony67]

I would NEVER get a EV for Disney, especially if you don't currently own one.

Yeah - was going to say something very similar.
If you don't have an Electric car already and are not familiar with them renting one on your vacation is probably not a great idea.

If you wanted to rent one just to try it out I'd do that at home around town when you are not dealing with a very expensive vacation.

 

[Annabell]

I was considering renting an EV too but reading your comments, maybe that is not a good idea.

 

[obsesseddisneyfan]

I rented an electric car at Disney world. We were earlier then rope drop everyday and got a charger everyday in the AM right next to the handicapped parking. We would enjoy the parks till late morning then go back to the room for cool down swim, nap and lunch. We would then go back to the parks in the evening. The chargers were always full in the evening. As having an electric car at home I knew I did not need to charge daily, but will always charge to top off when I can. If you are arriving early for early entry then it's a no brainer get the electric car. If you are sleeping in the gas car is most likely a better choice.

 

[Mle8308]

I rented an electric car at Disney world. We were earlier then rope drop everyday got the chargers everyday. As having an electric car at home I knew I did not need to charge daily but it got us front row parking in what would normally be the handicapped parking.

You already own an EV. I would not recommend one for a vacation if a person has never owned/used one prior. Not a good time to "practice". And you are the perfect example of what I talked about regarding availability. You went and took an EV charger/space every day even though you knew you didn't need to charge the vehicle daily....

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks!. I did look into this before booking. I guess my question is: how hard will it be to get one of these spots for two or three hours. I'm guessing there are no reservation and that each of the charging stations is app credit-card managed? There is one EV station at Yacht Club (next door), but it's marked "restricted," which I'm not sure what that means. The car "should" be able to go 250 miles without a charge.

The other aspect is that you won’t be allowed to access the resort ones if you are not a guest at that resort.

Honestly, I am just not sure I would want to do this given how much you want to use the vehicle and not having a large number of options for charging.

 

[J-Dog]

So it's far, far cheaper for my next trip to rent an EV at the airport than a traditional gas car. Rental agency has this down as a Kia e-Niro or similar. I'll probably drive to the DVC resort (Beach Club) and then to the parks and maybe Disney Springs. If I get a good reservation time, I'll probably go over to Ohana, too. I absolutely need to drive to Celebration once, hence the rental car versus Mears. How difficult will it be to find a charging station at Beach Club, the parks, etc.? I'm there six days. I'm guessing (hopefully) I'll only need to charge the car once. I've never used an electric car in Orlando before, but it's half the cost.

Thanks for the help.

Based on this thread, it seems like there's a good reason why they are cheaper to rent. Nobody wants to rent them...

 

[VGCgroupie]

Keep checking. An electric was cheaper for me in CA, but the closer I got to rental day the prices of traditional gas cars went way down.

Also, depending now what type of insurance you are using, many credit card insurances do not cover Teslas in the event they gave you a Tesla.

 

[disneylandtour]

Keep checking. An electric was cheaper for me in CA, but the closer I got to rental day the prices of traditional gas cars went way down.

Also, depending now what type of insurance you are using, many credit card insurances do not cover Teslas in the event they gave you a Tesla.

Yep, I've kept my eye on it. One of two things happens usually at MCO - as the date gets closer, rental companies realize that they're sitting on unrented stock and prices fall OR rental companies realize that nearly everything will be sold and prices go through the roof. Signs point to the second option here. My six days in an EV which I booked a while ago was $144 for the entire trip through Dollar (in terminal). When I booked it I think a smaller gas car was over $300 (from any agency in the terminal) and now it's like $350 or more. As with airlines ( which for me I've limited down to Delta, United, American, maybe Southwest in a pinch), I've also limited rental car companies to longterm traditional companies in terminal, as those will be the least hassle (Dollar, Hertz, National, Thrifty, Alamo, etc). So I think I'll keep with my EV plan. I just need to find the easiest way for it to work. The car should easily get 200 miles on a charge. MCO to WDW is about 25 miles each way. And I'll probably put 100 or so miles on it puttering around the resort. Maybe more. So I need one, maybe two charging opportunities while I'm there, at most. The pre-rope-drop plan mentioned up above sounds very doable. I'll probably go at least once to the parks for early entry anyways. And in terms of the car, the EV is just a piece of transportation for the week. I'm not buying the thing. I'm not making an argument in favor of EVs or against them. It needs to get me around the resort, and nothing more. I'm super good figuring out a minor, alternative plan, like showing up early to the parks one day, if that saves $200 or $250 and really isn't much extra work. $250 is a couple of dinners at Topolino's. I'll definitely drive to both MK and AK anyways. And the AK will be early morning, with or without the EV. So if this works, I'm looking, hopefully, at 10 minutes of figuring something out to save $200+. All good on my end. Plus I can maybe park up front by handicapped.

Good to know about Teslas, though. Thanks for that.

 

[Cfabar1]

If staying at the Swan Reserve, it is no big deal.... They have plenty of spaces.

Also there are some plug in spaces at Grand Floridian as well that you can plug in to if you bring a charger, not sure what the rental company gives you.

For all Disney's talk about "sustainability" they really need to improve EV charging options.... EV sales are nearing 10% of the market... They have work to do on this front.

 

[DisTravels]

The car "should" be able to go 250 miles without a charge.

Do you know if you have to return the rental car fully (or near fully) charged?

 

[SteveH]

So it's far, far cheaper for my next trip to rent an EV at the airport than a traditional gas car.

There is a reason they are cheaper and available, nobody wants them. By nobody I mean nobody on vacation where time is money wants to deal with them. I've read way to many stories about charging nightmares to ever take one on any vacation. You do you, but for me I want to get where I'm going without having to think about charging, having to find a charger or moving it. For me it's an easy "Just say No" moment.

 

[kanerf]

I own a Kia Niro PHEV, so no worries about charging unless I get lucky and find a charging space. If you can rent one of those, that is what I would go for.

 

[tidefan]

As the proud owner of a Mustang Mach-E, I would say for the rental, I'd stick with the ICE (gas) car. You will have way more options to fill up. The EV public charging structure just isn't quite there yet unless you access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

That said, we absolutely love our Mach-E and this once skeptic has been won over to EV's, BUT... we are able to install a Level 2 charger at the house and The University at which I work has free Level 2 chargers for Faculty, Staff, and Students.

I would also say that I think we are really close to an inflection point on vehicles, where EVs are approaching price parity with ICE cars, and quite honestly, it's so much cheaper to own lease one (no gas, no oil changes, etc.) and the Charging infrastructure is finally starting to really grow that I think the market will move more that way over the next few years.

 

[swooshbear]

Restricted, I believe, means it's for Disney owned vehicles only. I would NEVER get a EV for Disney, especially if you don't currently own one. There are not a lot of charging stations available outside of the parks, and the ones in the parks are usually in use and people do not return to move them once they are charged. And, not all charging stations are always actually working. There's a reason EV's are so cheap to rent - no one wants them. It's one more thing to stress about - trying to find an available and working charging station. Also, if you are going when it's hot, you won't get as much battery use. Spend the extra money and get a gas operated vehicle.

I have rented Tesla's and that is only because if there is nothing available on property, there are plenty of Superchargers on the way to the airport. I have lucked out with one of those spots at the Riveria and I have also rope dropped and got a charging space near the Epcot entrance, so you can charge and get "preferred" parking for free.

 

[disneylandtour]

I'm giving it a shot--unless prices fall significantly on gas cars. Maybe it's a learning experience and I don't do it again. But it's worth figuring out. I'll be there solo. So if it all falls apart and I need to go out of the bubble to charge, I'm only damaging my own trip. But I think if I rope drop a couple of days, I suspect I'll be good on at least one of those days. And that's all I need. Thanks for the suggestions. If anyone has suggestions on how to make this experiment work better, I'm all ears