E-mobility: Hertz is steaming ahead with sorting out electric cars
Apparently, the car rental company Hertz is not phasing out e-vehicles fast enough. Renters are receiving favorable purchase offers for fairly new Teslas.
Hertz recently contacted several renters of electric vehicles with tempting offers for cars such as Teslas. This was linked to the option of not even returning their borrowed e-vehicles, but buying them outright. One renter of a 2023 Tesla Model 3 posted on Reddit that he had been offered a purchase price of 17,913 US dollars. The rented car only had about 30,000 miles (around 48,280 kilometers) on the clock, which is very little for comparable rental cars.
Another contractual partner was offered a 2023 Chevy Bolt for 18,442 US dollars by the major US car rental company, reports The Verge. A lessee of a Polestar 2 declared that he had received a purchase offer of 28,500 US dollars. Hertz is offering the used cars with a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile (just under 20,000 kilometers) warranty on the powertrain and a buyback offer within 7 days.
The sales strategy is not entirely new, a company spokesperson told The Verge. Rental customers who choose to receive emails have been connected "with our distribution channels" for some time, he said. This not only raises awareness of the fact that Hertz also sells cars in principle, but also offers customers "unique opportunities" to purchase a vehicle that has already been virtually test-driven.
Hertz wanted to show off as an e-mobility pioneer
Originally, the rental company wanted to equip a quarter of its own vehicle fleet with e-cars by the end of 2024. A total of 165,000 e-vehicles were planned, with a focus on Tesla and the Swedish brand Polestar. In the end, this only amounted to around 60,000. Then, in January 2024, the U-turn: Hertz announced its intention to sell 20,000 electric cars over the course of the year and to take write-downs totaling 245 million US dollars. This initially involved a third of the company's own fleet of electric cars. A little later, it became 30,000 Teslas alone. The rental company also stopped buying Polestar 2 vehicles. The reason given was higher costs for repairs and damage.
The company's online marketplace is currently still offering some relevant bargains. However, the sell-off of e-cars could be coming to an end. In March, Ars Technica still counted more than 2100 of them on the used car page. On Saturday evening, there were 171.
(emw)
