Between big touch-screen controls and occasionally confusing door handles, EVs can be a little quirky. If you’re lucky, your rental company has some resources to get you up to speed before you hit the road. But even those materials don’t cover every little nuance you may encounter.
Our advice: Learn more about the EV you are thinking of renting before showing up at the counter.
Had I done that, I would have known that the Polestar 2 has a charging port right where you would normally pump some gas. Because of that, I frequently found myself having to back into parking spots next to chargers.
I chose the Polestar because I always wanted to try one — smaller electric options like the Chevy Bolt cost even less per day, if you can deal with the smaller size. In hindsight though, I probably should have gone with a standard-range Tesla Model 3 for about $5 more per day. With an included adapter, the Model 3 can charge at all the same public stations I visited with the Polestar, plus Tesla’s thousands of Supercharger stations across the United States and Canada.