Rental agencies don't actually "rent specific cars" - they sell rentals at specific price points and fill those obligations with whatever they have laying around at the time.
Which is why it's almost best to just rent the lowest, cheapest thing, because they'll give you whatever they have.
This stops working when you need a particular aspect of whatever it is, especially if it's an aspect nobody really "cares" about - like whether it is EV.
Most people care it has enough seats, and enough luggage room. So a larger SUV works as well as a car for them.
My wife and I went to Kauai and specifically rented a Jeep so we could take it on some moderate trails to see waterfalls and whatnot. We were somewhat dismayed when we arrived and found we had been "upgraded" to a BMW X5 and there were no actual off-road vehicles available from the company. It was a nice car, for sure, but not what we had wanted.
I've never tried to take a rental truly off-road but I've definitely had them on very unpaved roads they probably shouldn't have been on. You can get true off-road vehicles in locales like Death Valley but they're very pricey compared to a standard rental.
I've definitely had a number of minor scrapes etc. over decades and I've never once had an issue--though I've almost exclusively dealt with the larger companies for whom minor scrapes etc. are presumably considered normal.
Generally that's true, but Hertz specifically does have a few classes of vehicle that only contain one model, and they advertise those as something like "guaranteed make/model" / "reserve this exact car".
And while they do run out, most of the time you will receive what you booked, and at larger airport locations they'll typically substitute something close in size and nature to what you booked if they do run out of your specific class.
... and sometimes they have no viable plan for having something close to what they've promised.
Not so long ago Ireserved a car, from a large national company, to go on a backpacking trip. I picked an early pickup window, so I would have time to drive a substantial distance, hike, and get to my desired stopping point before nightfall. I arrive at the rental place at 8a, and find that they're fully staffed but had only a a single large van available for rent. If I waited around until mid afternoon, I was told, _maybe_ something would show up. One of the staff told me that the prior week corporate had decided to open up that site even though there were no cars.
I'm surprised that Turo/Getaround/etc don't message more aggressively about "you'll actually get the car you want, when you want, which somehow most car rental companies think is unachievable."
They never seem to have enough small cars in Europe. I'm fed up of being 'upgraded' to a crossover/SUV. I think it's worse with eg Enterprise because their fleet tends to reflect what people own, because they do so much crash/repairs business. But it happens with most of them
Which country? Had no issues getting small cars in France. Got a Fiat500 last time in France on Hertz. I suspect French rental cos like to "upgrade" the 1-way rentals to get rid of them due to unpopularity. Only time I got upgraded to an SUV (2-lane wide Jeep Compass) in France was on a 1-way.
Which is why it's almost best to just rent the lowest, cheapest thing, because they'll give you whatever they have.
This stops working when you need a particular aspect of whatever it is, especially if it's an aspect nobody really "cares" about - like whether it is EV.
Most people care it has enough seats, and enough luggage room. So a larger SUV works as well as a car for them.