Electric Car Rentals in Portland, Oregon

Curious about electric cars? Going to be in Portland, Oregon? Then here's your chance.

You can rent a Think City electric car in Portland at this link. It costs $6 an hour or $39 a day. The car is listed on "GetAround," a "peer to peer" rental site that matches car owners to car renters. You pick it up and drop it off at Hawthorne Auto Clinic, a car repair place in town reachable by a combination of light rail and bus.

I bought a Think City a couple months ago. Before I did so, I rented it from the same guy who's offering it at the link above. Hawthorne Auto is the designated warranty service center for Thinks in Oregon. The rental process was smooth, and everybody involved was as nice as could be. There's a big enthusiast component to electric cars, so they really want you to have a good experience.

I've been interested in electric cars for a long time, and had been familiar with Think. It started as Ford's electric car division, but got spun off as a consequence of Ford's financial problems. Norwegian investors bought the company, and then sold it to some other investors. They've recently gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But the cars are very much for real. It's a Ford design, and (cross my fingers) it works great so far.

The car's claimed maximum range is 100 miles, but that's in warm weather without using the heater or the lights. The more typical range would be 50 to 75 miles before you get nervous, which makes it a good city car. It feels and drive very much like a typical subcompact, and is a lot of fun to drive. There are 240-volt electric charging stations around town, plus your rental comes with a portable charger that can plug into a standard 110 volt household plug.

The car has all the required safety equipment. It looks kinda-sorta like a Mercedes "Smart" car, but it's a foot and a half longer, and four inches wider and taller. It seats two, with plenty of room for luggage. You'll get all kinds of smugness points driving one of these in uber-eco Portland. (I stuck mine on a flatbed trailer and hauled it up to Seattle, where I am one of a half-dozen people in the Puget Sound area who own one.)

Before I put this into the FAQ, I'd like to get any feedback on information I might have missed.