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Hertz slows down Polestar fleet integration

Landlords are apparently pulling the plug on electric cars - and also want to put the Polestar order on hold for the time being.

Hardly ordered, already canceled? Hertz is rapidly losing interest in electric cars and looking for a way out of the Polestar order. | Photo: Screenshot
Hardly ordered, already canceled? Hertz is rapidly losing interest in electric cars and looking for a way out of the Polestar order. | Photo: Screenshot
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Johannes Reichel

The US car rental company wants to get rid of Polestar models after Tesla and has temporarily stopped its plans to introduce tens of thousands of electric vehicles from the Swedish-Chinese brand Polestar. This was stated by the CEO of the electric car manufacturer, Thomas Ingenlath, to the Financial Times newspaper. The rental company had only agreed to purchase 65,000 Polestar EVs over a period of five years in 2022 and aimed to operate a quarter of its rental fleet electrically by the end of 2024. An agreement to purchase 100,000 Tesla models was also made. However, at the end of last year, they pulled the plug as the resale values of electric cars plummeted and repair costs soared.

Ingenlath now explained to the newspaper that he was contacted by Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr last fall, with the request to suspend the agreement to purchase the electric cars until 2024. Polestar agreed on the condition that Hertz would not sell its current Polestar vehicles prematurely or at a loss. Polestar has a “clear intention” to resume sales to Hertz on a large scale, assured the Polestar CEO. In January, the rental company then announced that it would sell 20,000 of its global electric vehicle fleet and instead invest in combustion engines. The service provider argued that the offer should be adjusted to meet demand.

Over the course of the year, 20,000 electric vehicles from various manufacturers are to be sold in the USA, and an additional write-off of 245 million dollars is being accepted. However, the operating profit is expected to increase net due to the transition. According to Hertz CEO Scherr, speaking to Bloomberg, it has proven to be more challenging than anticipated to reduce the higher costs of operating electric cars. In the future, demand will be monitored more closely before deciding to acquire more electric vehicles.

Translated automatically from German.
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