The demand for electric cars is weakening. Manufacturers like Volkswagen have been feeling this for months and have had to take drastic measures. But the problems also come from other sides – and not least directly affect the electric car pioneer Tesla.
Hertz wants to get rid of Teslas: electric cars are not well received
Because the well-known car rental company Hertz has now announced that it will be in 2024 Separate 20,000 electric cars from the rental vehicle fleet. That corresponds well to one third of all electric cars, that Hertz has on offer worldwide and which are now to be sold. The move is reportedly initially limited to the US.
Nevertheless, it has a significant signal effect, because Hertz makes it clear why it wants to separate from the Stromers. The primary aim is to balance supply and demand. Means: Hertz has bought many more electric cars than there are apparently customers, for which a rental electric vehicle is an option.
Back in December, Sixt’s competition also announced that it wanted to increase its electric fleet much more slowly and planned to sell electric cars. Were here too Demand problems been cited as one of the reasons.
In the case of Hertz, it should be more like: Is selling electric cars worth it?
In addition to the apparently lack of interest from customers, The cost of electric cars is causing trouble for car rental companies. As is the case for private customers, purchase prices tend to be higher than for cars with classic combustion engines. In addition, there are higher costs for damage repairs, criticizes Hertz (source: Spiegel). With electric cars, for example, they are twice as expensive as combustion engines.
Tesla in particular is faced with a residual value misery: the electric car pioneer’s aggressive price cuts since the beginning of 2023 have ensured that used Teslas have fallen extremely in value. Car rental companies usually quickly bring their vehicles back onto the market as used ones. There you can but hardly make any money with Teslas. Hertz is said to expect additional depreciation of $245 million due to the smaller electric car fleet.
Money from electric car sales goes into new combustion engines
The realignment of the rental companies also means a bitter blow to the success of electric cars on the market in other respects: Hertz at least wants to invest part of the income from large-scale electric car sales in new vehicles. Included But first you rely on petrol and diesel engines again. The E-car enthusiasm The lenders are obviously thorough cooled down.
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