International Car Hire Company Virtuo Plans to Switch to an All-EV Fleet
Jane Lu
· 3 min read
Electric vehicles
are becoming increasingly popular, and more companies are choosing to fill their fleet with EVs. Car hire start-up Virtuo hopes to do so in the future, as many of its customers are fans of Tesla
. There are a few factors that may put a delay on Virtuo's plan, however.
Virtuo is changing car rental services in Europe
Virtuo is a European
car rental
service that is changing the game. In keeping with modern times, the car hire start-up has developed a service which makes renting a car easier than ever. All customers need to do is pull out their phone, open the app, and pick their car. It's that easy.Virtuo now has cars available in France, Spain, Italy, and the UK So far, there are over 150,000 customers and 40,000 vehicles, according to
CNBC
. Investors have provided $96 million to help Virtuo grow, and the start-up has decided to use some of this money to go electric.Virtuo is teaming up with Tesla
One of the great things about Virtuo is that customers have some say in which vehicles join the fleet. One of the most desired vehicles that they want is the
Tesla Model 3
. Its ability to go from zero to 60 in 3.1 seconds and its 360-mile range make it a very attractive choice.Virtuo seems to be on board with this and is eager to offer more electric vehicles in its lineup. At the moment, there are no Tesla vehicles available, but Virtuo is working towards that.
It's started by offering Hyundai Konas as a means of seeing exactly what it takes to maintain an electric fleet and hopes to bring in Tesla vehicles soon.
The ultimate goal is for the Virtuo fleet to be 50% electric by 2025. By 2030, Virtuo hopes to have 100% of its fleet filled with EVs. There might be one major hurdle to this goal, however.
What could go wrong with a full fleet of electric vehicles?
There's one major problem with this plan for electrification, however, and that's the fact that many locations don't have enough charging stations.
If you're planning a road trip across America in an EV, you have to carefully plan out each stop, and unless you're staying local, it's not recommended that you deter from that route. This is because many rural areas don't have electric charging stations.
While you can always grab a gasoline canister and hike your way to a gas station, that's no possible with an EV. The best-case scenario would be getting your car towed to a charging station. The problem is that it may be a long haul.
The European Court of Auditors
reports that Europe is facing the same problem. There simply aren't enough charging stations
as of yet to make going fully electric a feasible decision. Not at the moment, at least. More charging stations are going up every day, so it's only a matter of time before this is no longer an issue, and Virtuo can fulfill its dream of having a fully electric fleet.
If you're thinking of switching to an electric vehicle, but aren't looking forward to dealing with your insurance company, let
Jerry
help. We're well versed in EV tax credits and can help find the best insurance quotes. 
