Tesla: Hertz wants to get rid of cars – and is asking tenants to buy them

Car rental companies have their problems with electric cars. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with a lack of demand or the (often very good) quality of the cars, but rather with their retention of value. A used electric car can only be sold with great difficulty and high losses. For companies with a high vehicle throughput, this is a mathematical challenge.

After Hertz announced the purchase of 100,000 Teslas three years ago in order to advance the electrification of its fleet, the company has now made a U-turn. An unprecedented sales campaign began at the beginning of the year – Hertz flooded the US market with dirt-cheap electric vehicles. (Hertz squanders Tesla at a bargain price: Why rental car companies are ditching electric cars)

But even with prices starting at a ridiculous $17,700 for a running car, the company has apparently not yet been able to sell all vehicles. You can still find corresponding offers on the website. However, if the mileage is around 250,000 kilometers, a blind purchase would be at least risky.

Hertz therefore takes a different approach – and equates renting a car with a test drive. If you are driving a Tesla from the rental company in the USA, you may receive the purchase offer straight away. A corresponding offer to a customer recently landed on .

It says: “Like your rental car? Take it home now with Hertz Car Sales. If you’re looking to buy a new car, consider this rental a test drive!”

The specific offer follows below. According to the Hertz customer, the landlord offered him a Tesla Model 3, built in 2023, with a mileage of less than 50,000 kilometers for just under $18,000. The new price for a Model 3 in the USA for the smallest model without special equipment is around 35,000 US dollars after deduction of government subsidies.

The direct purchase offers are apparently not aimed exclusively at Tesla tenants. The driver of a borrowed Polestar also received corresponding messages – albeit at higher prices.

It remains to be seen whether the strategy works. It’s definitely clever, as tenants have the opportunity to get to know the vehicles over a longer period of time and get an idea of ​​their condition. It is probably more likely that someone who can easily get to their destination in a car for days or weeks will be more inclined to buy that car.

For this year, Hertz had planned to sell 30,000 electric cars at high losses, “” reported in April. Because of the poor residual values, the company has already had to write off hundreds of millions. It is currently considered unlikely that car rental companies, including Sixt, will say goodbye to combustion engines in the medium term.