From what I understand, your fleet mostly rents to professionals so you have more of the lower trim models?
Pre-pandemic our low-line to high-line trim mix for pickup trucks was about even. During the big sell off last year we lost many of the high-line trimmed vehicles. Now that business is returning there is a rental vehicle shortage. New vehicles are hard to get because of the chip shortage. Toyota and Nissan stocked up on chips so we have added many Toyota and Nissan vehicles recently. Nissans are what usually fills the rental fleets., but the proportion of Toyota sedans has increased because they are available and Toyota is willing to sell. Lower trim line trucks have less toys, which naturally use less chips increasing availability. Nissan can sell us more pickups and Armada SUVs because with their Leaf sales they don't run into the CAFE mix issues. Another thing about the Nissan Titan is that is an older design. The newer the design the more microchips are needed for added technology. The new Frontier hasn't been seen around here. We do get Tacoma pickups and they are a customer favorite, The Tacoma trim levels are different in that many of the higher trims don't add a lot of tech.
Now that the rental fleets frequently run out of cars, the low-line pickup trucks are frequently rented out to families.
Keep in mind our fleet has a separate commercial division. It is in a suburb not far away from the airport. They rent all manner of trucks and have Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups available. Customers with a commercial account may even rent diesel powered pickups.
Are you guys considering getting Rivian pick-ups or are they outside the price range of the pick-ups you guys usually get?
We have fully loaded F-150 pickups in top-line trims which retail for $75K. Our commercial truck outlet has F-350 crew cab diesel dually pickups available and those have retail sticker prices close to six figures. They do have Ram with Cummins diesels available, but they tend to be in tradesman trim.
Another division of the corporate entity I work for offers leased vehicles. I have seen Teslas returned from a lease that ended, so I imagine a Rivian might show up for a lease situation. The only BEV at our airport location are a couple of Volvos. They take days to charge plugged into a standard wall outlet. We take returned vehicles and have them serviced, cleaned, and refueled in less than ten minutes. Even if we had high speed charging, it would not fit the rental car business model. I don't know how they handle the BEVs at the California locations.
I fully expect our commercial truck location will have battery electric Ford Transit vans when they become available, because it is a slightly different turn around procedure. The reservation rules are stricter as well. There is more room there, so high speed charging is more practical, but the chargers are very expensive to purchase. They will most likely see the electric F-150 as well, but the van will be available first according to Ford.