Mark Fields, former CEO of Ford and now CEO of Hertz, hit hard. The global car rental company, which has risked bankruptcy in the past months, in the hands of the super manager with proven experience is about to emerge from the tunnel of the crisis and now announces a sensational purchase for its rental car fleet: 100 thousand Tesla, the largest single purchase ever for electric vehicles, accounting for approximately $ 4.2 billion in revenue for Tesla. Reason? Tesla are the least expensive electric vehicles to maintain, they do not lose much value on the used market and the US company is the only one able to produce electric vehicles on a large scale.
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Mark Fields understands auto parts, as we know, and his decision takes on particular significance for the sector. So much so that, after the announcement, Tesla shares made a new jump on the stock market. But the point is another: Hertz Global Holdings Inc., just four months after bankruptcy, looks reborn and will receive the cars in the next 14 months. It is a Model 3, therefore immediately available for rental at Hertz locations in the main US and European markets starting from the beginning of November. This explains why Hertz is also building its own charging infrastructure.
“Our project – explained Fields – is to democratize access to electric vehicles. And this big purchase is a very important part of our strategy ”.
The electrification plan, which will eventually include nearly all of Hertz’s half-million cars and trucks worldwide, is the company’s first major initiative since it came out of bankruptcy in June. And he reports that Hertz’s new owners, Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management, are intent on shaking up an industry dominated by a handful of big players who are typically slow to change.
And there’s more: by taking so much of Tesla’s production – the order is equivalent to roughly one-tenth of what the automaker can currently produce in a year – Hertz could bar rivals from copying its strategy. Not to mention that Hertz is also breaking the mold by paying the full price of well-equipped cars, avoiding the typical super-offer base model that populates rental lots. In short, a revolution within the revolution.
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