Change of strategy at US car rental company Hertz. The Sixt rival announced that it would sell a third of its electric cars and use the proceeds to buy combustion engines.
The car rental company Hertz wants to sell a third of its global electric car fleet – and use some of the proceeds to buy combustion engines. Hertz said the aim was to adapt the supply to demand. 20,000 electric vehicles from various manufacturers will be sold in the USA over the course of the year. Hertz is taking an additional depreciation of $245 million for this, but points out that operating profit will increase as a result of the switch.
Hertz announced in fall 2021 that it would buy 100,000 Teslas. It was then announced that 175,000 electric cars would be ordered from General Motors and 65,000 from Polestar. But last year the car rental company became disillusioned and wanted to expand the proportion of electric cars more slowly. Hertz pointed out, among other things, that repeated price cuts by Tesla had also reduced the resale value of fleet vehicles. On the other hand, repairs to damage to electric cars are about twice as expensive as to combustion engines, it was said at the time.
Hertz boss Stephen Scherr now told the financial service Bloomberg that it has proven more difficult than expected to reduce the higher costs associated with operating electric cars. In the future, Hertz will closely monitor demand before deciding to buy more electric vehicles.
Source: Stern
