Three Things Airports Need to Consider for Hertz's Tesla Investment

Hertz electrified the rental car world with its recent announcement that it’s buying 100,000 Tesla vehicles to integrate into its rental fleets across the U.S.

The move means roughly 20 percent of the company’s rental fleet will be electric by 2023, with the vehicles available in up to 100 markets.

The move means some airports will see a lot more electric vehicles inside consolidated rental car facilities (ConRACs) and rental car areas in short order. Jack Santa, principal, aviation advisory services for Jacobs, shared his take on what that impact will look like.

Power Supply

Santa said airports need to consider power supply for ConRACs. They’ll need capacity to charge the electric vehicles on top of existing demands of the airport power grid to the ConRAC. They should consider how it’s being provided to the facility, where power feeds are available within the facility footprint and how to set up separate metering to account for electric vehicle charging by user group.

QTA Changes

Quick Turnaround Areas (QTAs) will need to change.

Hertz plans to install Tesla Super Charging Stations with the vehicles, but Santa says it doesn’t seem reasonable to have charging stations in the common ConRAC QTA area. It makes sense from a planning standpoint to put the chargers in the company’s ready return area and create segregated lanes for fossil fuel vehicles and electric vehicles. Alternatively, new charging technologies and charging stations in fleet storage areas represent other options to analyze.

“The impact on the ConRACs will be based on best utilizing the rental car company’s market share allocation,” Santa said. “Competitors aren’t going to give up QTA common space at this point and impact overall operating efficiencies by adding charging stations to this area.” 

People Power

The new EV vehicles mean more staff will be needed at the ConRACs and that means incremental demand for more employee parking.

Segregated EV charging areas means some employees will be needed to tackle charging for electric vehicles while others will remain dedicated to the QTA line.