Hertz Reverting to Petrol-Powered Fleet in USA - Selling Tesla EVs and Stopping Purchase of 65,000 More Polestar EVs

Lenthusiast on 07/02/2024 - 13:25
Last edited 07/02/2024 - 13:38 by 1 other user

Some big news published today in Drive from the owner of a very large fleet of electric cars - Hertz:

If you're wanting a cheaper electric car (and don't mind an ex-rental) it could be a way of acquiring one as they sell their EV fleet!

I had a friend who was offered a free upgrade to a Polestar from a Toyota Yaris rental late last year, which they took as they were just driving around Sydney for a weekend. Obviously many customers renting vehicles for longer road trip holidays in Australia aren't choosing an EV - they are not always the most convenient.

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Comments

  • jv on 07/02/2024 - 13:30

    Reverting to Petrol-Powered Fleet

    Was to be expected…

  • mskeggs on 07/02/2024 - 13:31
    +8

    This story is about the USA.
    Car rental would see little benefit in electric, their customers pay for fuel.
    It cites higher repair costs.
    Individuals who don’t have an electric car might be dubious about hiring one, I would be, if I was hiring in the USA where I don’t know much about charging infrastructure and don’t have a home to plug it in.

    If you are a US car rental company with an already failing business, this article is required reading. If you aren’t, it doesn’t seem to apply at all.

    • chuq on 07/02/2024 - 13:57

      Car rental would see little benefit in electric, their customers pay for fuel.

      Many include access to major charging networks as part of the deal. Driver just rocks up and plugs in, swipes the included fob/card, charging starts. In some cases (Teslas on Tesla superchargers) they don't even need to swipe anything, just plug in.

      • mskeggs on 07/02/2024 - 13:59
        +2

        So even worse, they have to pay for it, not the customer.

        • cloudy on 08/02/2024 - 09:44

          Are you suggesting the more a company offers customers the worse it is for the company??

          • mskeggs on 08/02/2024 - 11:46

            @cloudy: Assuming there is a cost for the extra thing, yes? Sometimes the extra cost will be less than the increase in sales that results because the product offering is more attractive.
            They could add free diamond rings with every hire, but the additional cost is unlikely to be made up with additional rentals.
            And the fuel fees were a profit centre for car rentals - you can gamble on whether you will be able to return the car close to empty, or pay a hefty mark up for them to “refuel”. With an electric car I presume they are fully charged when you collect them, so they have to pay for the power and miss out on the little bit of fuel excess payment.

            Maybe that is valuable to renters? I don’t know.

      • chuq on 07/02/2024 - 14:42

        So they get to charge a higher daily rate to absorb it and the hirer is happy because they pay less overall. Win-win.

  • jv on 07/02/2024 - 13:32

    holidays in Australia aren't choosing an EV - they are not always the most convenient.

    Overseas too….

    Passed many queuing up, frustrated, waiting their turn to charge their car…
    Meanwhile, we topped up in 2-3 minutes and we were back on the road enjoying our holiday…

    • Brian McGee on 07/02/2024 - 14:02
      +2

      But the EVangelists will say you should be stopping for 30m-1h when refueling/topping up electrons. They obviously don't get $4 coke and kit kat combos at evie.

  • ihfree on 07/02/2024 - 13:35
    +3

    If you're wanting a cheaper electric car (and don't mind an ex-rental) it could be a way of acquiring one as they sell their EV fleet!

    USA import and RHD conversion, bargain!

    • cloudy on 08/02/2024 - 09:45

      When tesla started selling cars all those years many said its a US story, but it has spread. I dare say car hire companies will be doing similar with their EV fleet here in time.

  • cookietime on 07/02/2024 - 13:36
    +1

    "Hertz recently announced our plan to sell 20,000 electric vehicles (EVs). The sale relates to our U.S. fleet. We are confident that our EV fleet in ANZ will continue to meet our customer's needs. Currently, Hertz’s ANZ fleet comprises over 900 electric vehicles, with further deliveries scheduled throughout 2024," a representative for Hertz Australia said in a statement to Drive.

    • enthusiast on 07/02/2024 - 13:47
      +1

      Thanks for the update, @cookietime!

      The article when I read it stated:

      Drive has contacted Hertz Australia for comment and will update the story with its response.

  • Baysew on 07/02/2024 - 13:48
    +3

    The world's largest producer of EV's (BYD) aren't even sold in the USA.

    • jv on 07/02/2024 - 14:23
      -4

      BYD

      Geez they are an ugly looking car…

      • Baysew on 07/02/2024 - 14:43

        Geez maybe ugly compared to Dolphin, Atto 3 and Seal, but you don't see a lot of them about.

  • ncm on 07/02/2024 - 13:55
    +4

    While they might not be the optimal choice for rental, EVs are excellent vehicles to own. I absolutely adore my Tesla Model Y - purchasing it was one of the best decisions I've made

    • jv on 07/02/2024 - 14:25
      -5

      Sure, they are fine for grocery shopping… Not much else though.

      • payless69 on 07/02/2024 - 16:39
        +4

        do they ruin jv's weekend?

  • Drakesy on 07/02/2024 - 14:00

    Strange i had conflicting reports that it was about the delays in repairs taking the cars out of action for significant amounts of time.

  • JIMB0 on 07/02/2024 - 14:01
    +2

    The comments on that article has some shocking puns.

    • jv on 07/02/2024 - 14:26
      -2

      shocking puns.

      🤣🤣🤣

      I see what you did there….

  • CuteWittleCorgi on 07/02/2024 - 14:07
    +4

    Was recently in the US for 7 weeks. All we ever rented were Teslas, through Turo.

  • hsbc on 07/02/2024 - 14:22
    +3

    The shift to electric cars just kicking off , people are still getting the hang of EV charging and the whole setup. Hertz might've been better off waiting a bit and rolling out electric rentals in the next couple of years.

    • jv on 07/02/2024 - 14:45
      +1

      The shift to electric cars just kicking off

      Yep, maybe worth considering getting one in about 5 years…

  • randomusername2017 on 07/02/2024 - 14:31
    +1

    Old news.. been clearing out since last October

  • brendanm on 07/02/2024 - 14:48
    +3

    How would Hertz selling cars in the USA help me here in Australia exactly?

  • Euphemistic on 07/02/2024 - 14:52

    This comes as Hertz started to sell 20,000 Tesla electric vehicles from its fleet in January 2024 – with the car rental giant previously citing expensive repair costs coupled with a lower depreciation value as the main reasons behind the change back to petrol-powered cars.

    "Collision and damage repairs on an [electric vehicle] can often run about twice that associated with a comparable combustion engine,” Mr Scherr previously said in a media statement.

    Appears its mostly about crash damage and delay in repair times. It seems especially tesla are difficult to repair at this point. Not enough parts or authorised repairers. Then there is caution of repairers unsure about dealing with the batteries. This will change of course over time as we get more repairers qualified and other legacy car makers get on board with designs to be more easily repaired.

    Ive been seeing some crashed EVs on auction sites and many of them look to have very little damage but have been written off.

  • Gdsamp on 07/02/2024 - 15:17

    great news for people wanting to buy 2nd hand tesla model 3 in USA. can getem with significant discount

  • GordonD on 07/02/2024 - 16:53
    -1

    Hertz' decision isn't good news for Tesla. But Tesla has plenty of other customers queued up.

    Who its really bad news for is Polestar. Hertz had decided, but not committed to a large purchase of Polestars. It has now backed away from that deal. And unlike Tesla, which is very profitable these days thanks to fuel efficiency rules, Polestar is in serious financial trouble. Its sales are weak and it is losing money hand over fist. USD 4K on every car sold. Volvo has walked away from it, handing its share of the company to Geely, because it can't make a profit if it has to keep subsiding Polestar.

    Polestar offered Hertz a good deal for more cars, on the condition that Hertz didn't dump all its current Polestars on the market early and depress the used car value of the. That's the problem business purchasers of EVs have at the moment, that they're more expensive to buy new, then are worth less at the end of the 3 or 5 year lease period, so they cost more to own despite lower maintenance costs.

    Oh, and Tesla's decision to not have the standard indicator stalk that every other car in the world has didn't help them. If Hertz has to explain it to every customer who rents one who is used to an indicator stalk, and it annoys the customers that they don't have something they reflexively use, or get booked for not using, its natural a rental car company says its not for them. Owners of Teslas can get used to it, renters don't have time to. Tesla shot itself in the foot with that one.

    • GordonD on 08/02/2024 - 17:51

      Ford is losing AUD 43K per EV it sells, according to a media report.

      • Euphemistic on 10/02/2024 - 05:23

        Media report from who? Some fossil fuel funded outlet? Is it "losing 43k" or have they just spend a bucket load building new factories and some lazy journalist can't work out you need to invest to change manufacturing processes?

  • Ghost47 on 07/02/2024 - 17:10

    Whoever at Hertz decided to buy a whole boatload of EVs then backflip on the decision deserves a pat on the back for how highly entertaining the story is.

  • crentist on 07/02/2024 - 18:09
    +2

    I think it's largely about the inconvenience of charging. They're good cars to own, but not to rent, and even worse to rent out.

    Plugging in at home is super convenient, but rentals rely on outside chargers. Which is time and stress for renters who are busy doing other stuff. And cars coming back with low battery (which would be a lot) have a very long turnover if they hope to recharge them to any acceptable level.

  • jimbobaus on 09/02/2024 - 16:47

    Looks like drive is about 10 days late.
    This story was widely reported everywhere in January.

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