This always comes up as a suggestion. I would love to see the numbers where that works out. The costs of renting even a couple times a month (far less than 10% of trips) will very quickly make it cheaper to just own an ICE vehicle.

It gets really bad if you dare to drive out of state because you get hit with extra mileage fees. For example every year I go camping for a week - driving from the midwest to Utah in a full size suv or truck (need 4wd and space for climbing/camping gear). Last time I ran the numbers (2022) it was around $1500 for a rental for that trip. (1k base rental for a week, 350 for mileage fees, and 180 for towing fee because I like to bring a small teardrop camper)

I've kept a close eye on this since I would love an EV, but it remains much cheaper to keep paying for my ICE vehicle than buying an EV and occasionally renting. There's a huge list of other drawbacks to account for as well:

- the non-financial costs of time spent reserving, picking up, dropping off, fighting surprise fees, etc.

- worrying about damage (most rentals don't allow off pavement driving, or will void insurance if you do)

- the fact that you can't have anything custom (no roof rack for a kayak, no snow tires or chains for driving through the mountains, no winch or recovery points, no interior improvements like stereo or dash cam, the list goes on)