Look, if you want to get an EV, feel free. Once again, I’ll say I’m not against one. One would work for me 90% of the time, since I’m mostly puttering around town. But, it should be my choice. I’d rather get a hybrid (I’m hoping Honda brings the HRV hybrids to the US when my lease is up in April 2025). Anyhow, can you guess why Hertz is dumping them?
Popular car rental service Hertz announced it will get rid of 20,000 electric vehicles from its fleet because of the high cost of fixing them. https://t.co/yqdTy7OXfh
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) January 11, 2024
High cost of fixing. Weren’t we told that maintenance is lower for EVs? From the article
Popular car rental service Hertz announced it will get rid of 20,000 electric vehicles from its fleet because of the high cost of fixing them.
The company decided to sell after discovering the vehicles were more expensive to repair after a collision than gas-powered cars.
“Expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs, remained high in the quarter, thereby supporting the company’s decision to initiate the material reduction in the EV fleet,” Hertz said in a statement.
The stock market recoiled at the news of the sale, with Hertz shares falling 5% Thursday morning.
Hertz still offers dozens of EV options, from Teslas to BMW’s i3. Even after the sale, the company should have thousands of EVs available. Last year, the company bought around 160,000 EVs for use from Tesla and Sweden’s Polestar.
EV vehicles are typically much more expensive than gas-powered cars to maintain, especially after a crash, with estimates showing a $1,000 difference.
They may have bought them, but, they never entered the fleet, which analysts show to be around 60K, with quite a few articles showing that dumping 20K is a third of their EV fleet
(CNN) Hertz, which has made a big push into electric vehicles in recent years, has decided it’s time to cut back. The company will sell off a third of its electric fleet, totaling roughly 20,000 vehicles, and use the money they bring to purchase more gasoline powered vehicles.
Electric vehicles have been hurting Hertz’s financials, executives have said, because, despite costing less to maintain, they have higher damage-repair costs and, also, higher depreciation.
The falling prices of EVs is also causing major issues for Hertz’s resale segment
“The MSRP declines in EVs over the course of 2023, driven primarily by Tesla, have driven the fair market value of our EVs lower as compared to last year, such that a salvage creates a larger loss and, therefore, greater burden,” Scherr said.
Simply put, people are generally willing to pay a certain amount less for a used car than for a new one. As the price of new car goes down, that also pushes down what people are willing to pay to buy a used one.
Hertz expects to take a loss of about $245 million due to depreciation on the EVs, an average of about $12,250, per vehicle the company said in an SEC filing.
Yeah, $245 million isn’t chump change. And, are people wanting to rent EVs? Perhaps the small segment who already has one, but, if they’re just handing you the keys it’s not that easy. It can be hard enough for people to drive a different car than what they have with all the technology. It took me a while to figure out a Tesla, and jumping into other manufacturer vehicles and demonstrating them I can only know so much.
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Mr H will be appalled! Those Evil Capitalists™ are killing Mother Gaia over filthy lucre!
This is not the first thing a bean counter’s spreadsheet has affected and won’t be the last. Yes, Mr. H will be appalled. The reality of economics strikes.
My father returned his Mercedes EQS after it caught fire and smoldered in the garage two weeks ago. He had it towed back to Mercedes in Palm Beach and they advised him that it was going to be a insurance claim. So far neither the insurance company nor Mercedes wants to cover it. The vehicle was $206,000 on the list price which is not what he paid but nonetheless he got less than six months worth of driving out of it. The vehicle has only 3000 miles on it. He doesn’t know what’s gonna happen that’s a lot of money to get peed away with one car.
It never even burst into flames. It seems that some connection to the battery separated or malfunctioned in some way that caused the battery to start smoking. It was burning but it wasn’t flaming burning. Anyway while the insurance company in Mercedes figure it out my father has decided to buy something else. Whatever it is dad says it will not be an electric. I laughed when he paid $5200 to have the charger station built in his garage. This whole EV thing for him has been nothing but a total fiasco.
I have no problems with EV’s. Do have a problem with the government telling me I have to buy an EV. I hate the way the left bullies everybody into doing what they want them to do instead of allowing us the freedom to do as we choose. And they always try and make sure that we have penalties that are far heavier than what they should be for anything we do.
They will sell them to a wholesaler who will unload them to various used car dealers who will then make a quick buck pawning them off “as is” to idiots. When the batteries shit the bed, which they do in about half the time the manufacturers claim, the new owners will find out that a new battery costs more than the car is worth. they will then junk it whereupon it will sit unrecycled forever because of, yup, the expense! And where these useless hulks gather by the thousands will become superfund sites.
Your tax dollars at work!
Why bring a decent product to market when you can easily bribe .gov to subsidize your shitty one?
But hey, CARBON!!!!
We’re doomed.