Car rental company Hertz is selling a third of its electric cars and buying new combustion engines

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 announced on Thursday that it wanted to adjust its supply to demand. Over the course of the year, 20,000 electric vehicles from various manufacturers will be sold in the US. Hertz charges 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 the fall of 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 share 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, it was said at the time that repairs to electric cars were about twice as expensive as to repairs to combustion engines.

Hertz boss Stephen Scherr now told financial service Bloomberg that reducing the higher costs associated with operating electric cars has proven more difficult than expected. Going forward, Hertz will closely monitor demand before deciding to purchase more electric vehicles.

(sda/awp/dpa)