Car rental company Hertz actually had big plans for e-mobility. These have now stopped. picture alliance / Snowfield Photography | D. Kerlekin/Snowfield Photography
Gil West becomes Hertz’s new CEO after Stephen Scherr steps down.
Hertz is selling a third of its electric car fleet and is partly investing in combustion engines.
The reasons include falling resale value, more expensive repairs and higher operating costs for electric cars.
After an ambitious push towards electromobility, car rental company Hertz announces a change in leadership. Gil West, who was previously responsible for operations at robotaxi company Cruise, is set to take over management of the company from April 1st. Hertz announced on Friday that its previous CEO, Stephen Scherr, had resigned.
Hertz caused a stir in autumn 2021 with the announcement that it would buy 100,000 Tesla vehicles. Scherr underpinned this initiative by announcing that he would order an additional 175,000 electric cars from General Motors and 65,000 from Polestar after he took over the company’s leadership just over two years ago.
However, earlier this year Hertz made a U-turn. A third of the global electric car fleet is now being sold and some of the proceeds are being invested in the purchase of combustion engines. 20,000 electric vehicles from various manufacturers are expected to be sold in the USA over the course of the year. Hertz is taking a write-off of $245 million (225 million euros) for this, but emphasizes that the change will lead to an increase in operating profit.
Read too
Electric car for 20,000 euros: Volkswagen will bring ID.1 onto the market in 2027
One of the reasons Hertz gave for the change of course was that it wanted to better adapt its supply to demand. Another obstacle was the drastic loss in value of electric cars due to Tesla’s repeated price cuts. Additionally, Hertz pointed out that repairing damage to electric cars is about twice as expensive as traditional combustion vehicles. Reducing the operating costs of electric cars is also proving to be more difficult than originally expected.
Downturns in business and tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to Hertz’s bankruptcy in 2020. In the summer of 2021, financial investors started a new beginning with an investment worth billions. During this time, Hertz also sold a significant portion of its vehicle fleet, while used car prices rose sharply due to supply shortages.
AA/dpa