Status: 25.10.2021 4:42 p.m.
In the Corona crisis, Hertz had to fear for survival and apply for bankruptcy under self-administration. Now the car rental company is surprising with a major order from the electric car manufacturer Tesla.
The US car rental company Hertz is investing billions in expanding its electric car fleet. Sixt’s rival announced today that 100,000 Tesla automobiles had been ordered by the end of 2022. The major order has a volume of around $ 4.4 billion (around 3.8 billion euros), assuming that all vehicles ordered are of the type of the cheapest Tesla vehicle, Model 3. This model starts at $ 44,000. The major Hertz order corresponds to around a tenth of Tesla’s current annual manufacturing capacity.
In order to be able to cope with the already high demand, which has now increased suddenly due to the order, Tesla is dependent on being able to quickly start and ramp up production in new plants such as Grünheide near Berlin or Austin, Texas, according to experts. The factory in Germany is largely completed, but the final permits are still missing – the schedule has long been behind due to bureaucratic discrepancies.
“Electric cars are now mainstream”
Hertz said they wanted to build the largest electric car rental fleet in North America because of people’s keen interest in electric cars. From November, customers in the USA, but also in some European cities, will be able to book Tesla’s Model 3. In addition to the order, Hertz announced that it would install several thousand charging stations. “Electric cars are now mainstream,” said Hertz transition chief Mark Fields. This is supported by the increasing global demand and the interest of customers. With the order from Tesla, the proportion of electric vehicles in Hertz’s global fleet will increase to over 20 percent, according to the car rental company.
The order from Tesla is the company’s first major initiative since bankruptcy proceedings ended in June. Hertz had applied for bankruptcy protection in 2020 as part of the corona restrictions, but then quickly recovered. The company was bailed out by several private equity firms, including Knighthead Capital Management and Apollo Capital Management.
Tesla’s shares reacted in the US stock exchange trading with a price jump of more than seven percent to the bulk order. Since the beginning of the year, the price has increased by a good 35 percent and has increased by over 20 percent in the past four weeks alone. With a market value of over $ 950 billion, Tesla is one of the highest-traded companies in the world and is still nearing the milestone of breaking the $ 1 trillion mark.