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Hertz to purchase 175,000 General Motors EVs over the next five years:
Hertz is once again growing its EV fleet, announcing Tuesday that it has struck a deal with General Motors to purchase 175,000 electric vehicles from the automaker's Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop brands over the next five years. Customers will see the first offerings, namely the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, arrive on Hertz lots beginning in the first quarter next year.
The deal, which runs through 2027, will bring a wide variety of models to Hertz's growing EV herd. Between now and 2027, the rental company expects its customers to drive about 8 billion miles in said EVs, preventing an estimated 3.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released. Hertz plans to convert a quarter of its rental fleet to battery electric by 2024.
[...] For folks who are already in line, having ordered a GM EV and are waiting on delivery, don't fret. This deal with Hertz shouldn't impact your existing delivery date. "Our first priority is delivering vehicles to customers holding reservations," a GM rep told Engadget via email Tuesday. "GM is installing capacity to meet demand from all customers, with annual capacity in North America rising to more than one million units in 2025."
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday September 22 2022, @03:09PM (2 children)
I am not willing to own a Bolt after the recalls and production halt from the fires. It was supposedly solved but I want at least three years of real world data before I make that purchase.
That said, I am curious about GM's offerings and I would gladly rent one of these vehicles. Even generically speaking about EV rental: for an average week long work trip I only put 100 miles on a car (Airpoirt, Hotel, Factory, Dinner & repeat). And if I was renting for personal travel, the cost savings from fuel would be very enticing depending on the rental cost.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Thursday September 22 2022, @10:01PM (1 child)
Do you have to return it fully charged or pay some ridiculous surcharge/fee? How does that all work in EV rental world?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 24 2022, @01:23AM
An associate rented a Tesla at Charlotte NC airport a few weeks ago. Returned it a couple of days later with something less than 150 miles of use -- thus he didn't need to charge it. No special fee for charging by the rental company (my guess, baked into the rental cost?)
Sorry, he didn't mention which company he rented from, but it's easy enough to check for a BEV option when you reserve a car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2022, @04:49PM
> "Our first priority is delivering vehicles to customers holding reservations,"
Of course they will sell retail first. Hertz is going to pay significantly less with a large quantity purchase. This isn't news, rental fleets are traditionally filled with cars that are getting a little dated, which is when retail sales normally start to fall off.
(Score: 3, Touché) by kazzie on Friday September 23 2022, @04:44AM
Does that make a total of 175 kiloHertz?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 23 2022, @05:09PM (1 child)
It's heartening to hear Hertz is making fleet-level purchases of EVs for its customers. Rental cars, which are mostly for local driving, make a lot of sense as EVs. As a recent city dweller it would be great to have the incessant traffic run quieter and cleaner. Large purchases of EVs by parties like Hertz help drive adoption not only in pure numbers but in giving more people the chance to experience what a delight they are to drive, which might then encourage them to buy their own EVs.
With the advent of much larger numbers of EVs on the road, though, cities will have to build out a lot more charging infrastructure. A lot of Tesla supercharger sites, for example, only have room for about eight cars at a time. They are fast chargers but still can take at least twenty minutes per car. It's fine in most places for the number of Teslas on the road now, but adding a lot more suddenly will quickly lead to charging bottlenecks.
I am not up on charging times for Chevy Bolts but if they're any slower to charge than Teslas then the bottlenecks could happen sooner and worse.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday September 24 2022, @10:21AM
The main limiting factor these days tends to be the current offered by the charger, rather than the car itself.