In February of 2024, Hertz Rent-a-Car suddenly backed off its ambitious plans to essentially turn its rental car fleet into an all-electric operation.
First, Hertz said it would sell 20,000 electric vehicles due to high repair costs.
— Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) February 6, 2024
Now, Hertz will halt a 65,000 EV order.
The evidence is clear: Consumers don't want electric vehicles. pic.twitter.com/tzcLT5olud
The company had come to the realization that no one was interested in purchasing used rental cars if they were EVs, and unloading those used vehicles is an essential part of the company's business model.
I'm sure another part of the calculation was that very few customers wanted them when confronted with Hertz presenting an EV as their vehicle. Most wind up swiftly demanding an internal combustion engine substitution (ICE), an experience so many of my friends have had across the rental car agency spectrum.
About two weeks ago, Hertz got another nasty surprise thanks to a couple of their EVs. The vehicles were parked in a lot at San Diego's International Airport and went up in flames at zero dark thirty on a late August Tuesday morning.
Thick smoke drifted across the waterfront near San Diego International Airport early Tuesday morning after three electric vehicles caught fire at a rental car facility, prompting a hazmat response. The blaze broke out around midnight at the Hertz lot on North Harbor Drive, a location commonly used for Uber and Lyft rentals as well as fleet maintenance. Flames spread to a fence and nearby trees, producing heavy smoke visible from the airport. Due to the involvement of electric vehicle batteries, hazmat teams were called in as a precaution. Firefighters remained on scene for about an hour to fully extinguish the fire and ensure no rekindles occurred.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. The damage was contained to the vehicles and the lot, and not much fuss as far as travel delays, because the fire broke out so early.
San Diego area crews are getting plenty of practice handling EV-related fires, though. Saturday evening, just before seven, an EV hooked up to a charging station at a Target in Vista suddenly burst into flames, which then spread to the vehicles at stations next to it.
Multiple electric vehicles caught on fire at an EV charging station in a northern San Diego Target parking lot Saturday night.
Firefighters with the Vista Fire Department were dispatched to a vehicle fire at a Target parking lot in the 3100 block of Business Park Drive in Vista around 7 p.m. Saturday.
The fire department said the fire appeared to have started when an EV was hooked up to a charging port, and the fire spread to at least one to two nearby vehicles.
#SanDiego Multiple Electric Vehicle Fire at Target in #Vista
— Sideo TV (@SideoTV) September 7, 2025
📹 @MobileNewsSD pic.twitter.com/ybcYsfQE8x
Fire departments are developing specific procedural responses for EV fires as they have so many challenges that differ from the traditional car fire.
At a recent EV fire in Colorado Springs, the local department explained some of the additional precautions and procedures they now have to take, one of which is integrating a hazmat team as part of their response.
...CSFD shared a warning with the community, saying electric vehicle fires can present a significant hazard.
“The batteries inside the vehicle can experience thermal runaway which means the battery cells overheat and cause an explosion,” a spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Fire Department said. “They also release toxic chemicals into the air. Additionally, they take a significant amount of water to completely extinguish.”
CSFD says firefighters in Colorado Springs have a unique plan and execution for electric vehicle fires to ensure the safety of both the community and the firefighters on scene.
Sadly, hybrid owners also have to be extra wary of their vehicles, as one Australian family found out last Friday when their basically brand new RAV4 went up in the middle of the night. Thankfully, they all escaped their burning home safely.
An out-of-control blaze believed to have been sparked by a hybrid electric car has left a family home a smoking mess with neighbours rushing to help as loud explosions woke the street.
The blaze erupted at a Smithfield property, in Sydney’s southwest, just before 3am on Friday, forcing the family in the home to flee to their backyard as flames threatened the house.
Firefighters were able to contain the fire, but not before two cars were completely gutted and the front of the property was scorched.
Terrifying to see this in front of your house.
After the big ocean-going car carrier fires we've seen lately, marine insurers are trying to tighten and update fire safety guidelines for the vessels that transport these vehicles.
The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) has released an updated version of its safety guidelines titled “Risk mitigation for the safe ocean and short-sea carriage of electric vehicles,” addressing the growing concerns around EV fires aboard vessels.
...“We are well aware that the characteristics of an EV fire are different to those emanating from a standard internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) and it is important that carriers, operators and insurers understand the risks involved and the measures that might reduce that risk,” said Lange.
The updated guidelines focus on five key areas: potential gas accumulation during thermal runaway events, total energy release and peak temperatures in EV fires, challenges with Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) ship design, implementation of a “Fixed First” approach for firefighting on PCTCs, and limitations of foam-based extinguishing systems.
Among the most significant findings is that during thermal runaway, EVs can release flammable gases that pose explosion risks in unventilated spaces. Research also indicates that while the total energy released by EV and ICEV fires is comparable, EVs may exhibit higher peak heat release depending on battery type, with some EV fires capable of exceeding 1,000°C compared to approximately 600°C for conventional vehicles.
Some ferry and barge operators are even going so far as to restrict or ban transporting EVs and plug-in hybrids altogether out of an abundance of caution.
Alaska Marine Lines will no longer ship electric vehicles due to fire risk
...Alaska Marine Lines will no longer ship electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles to Alaska or Hawaii.
Last week, the barge company announced the policy change in a statement due to the fire risk associated with shipping large lithium ion batteries.
AML’s decision to stop shipping electric vehicles means reduced access for communities off the road system in Southeast Alaska, where EVs have become an increasingly popular option.
Alaskans can still bring electric vehicles up by ferry, though it can take longer. The Alaska Marine Highway System limits its policy to two electric vehicles per sailing. Once electric vehicles catch fire, they’re challenging to put out, according to Alaska Department of Transportation Spokesperson Sam Dapcevich.
“EV fires, I believe, kind of burn until they go out, and so you have to kind of contain them. Each vessel has two specialized blankets on board that can be thrown over a vehicle, and it sort of smothers it,” Dapcevich says. “We also have a policy to park those vehicles in a specific location on the ship, and we provide extra room around them for the possibility of needing to fight the fire.”
So, it might be prudent to check before you count on taking a ferry anytime during that dream vacation if you plan on driving one of these.
It does continue to make one think about these vehicles and the yet-to-be-developed response to when they decide to blow.
...The question I’m sure we’re all asking, how long will insurance companies continue to put up with this risk? Because it wouldn’t surprise me if hybrids with such large batteries are actually more dangerous than EVs. If the gasoline portion of the vehicle has the normal risk profile of a gasoline engine, and the large EV scale battery carries the normal risk of an EV, then surely the risk such a hybrid vehicle will spontaneously explode is the sum of both sets of risks.
If this heightened combined risk profile for hybrids is correct, and nobody was warned, hybrid vehicle makers could face the mother of all class action lawsuits from people who lost their homes or the lives of their loved ones.
As well as who gets to pay for all the additional training, equipment, and response teams required for containing and extinguishing these fires.
Growing pains for new technology, I suppose you could say.
And it's not that ICE vehicles don't burn up - they most assuredly do. Only the ferocity level is much lower, and the flames can be managed with all the equipment in place now, be it a carport, a car park, or an ocean-going car-carrier. They don't require triage team attendance, nor watching them burn themselves out because they can't be put out.
It just seems as if we're being forced into awfully exorbitant expenditures for hobbyists, but God help us if we're parked in a parking garage - or the house next door - and the local fire department doesn't have what they need.
YMMV
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