Following Hertz’s disastrous misadventure with EVs, CEO Stephen Scherr is stepping down, Bloomberg reported. He’ll get replaced by the previous COO of GM’s robotaxi Cruise division, Gil West, who may also be part of the board of administrators.
A 12 months after rising from chapter in 2020, Hertz stated it will remodel its automobile rental enterprise by buying 100,000 Tesla EVs. “The brand new Hertz goes to cleared the path as a mobility firm, beginning with the most important EV rental fleet in North America,” the corporate stated on the time. The announcement helped ship Tesla’s worth hovering to a $1 trillion valuation.
Scherr joined Hertz after that call was made, however elevated Hertz’s wager on EVs by putting orders with Polestar and GM as properly. The corporate did not buy many EVs from these automakers, however by the tip, it had round 60,000 from the three automakers.
Issues went sideways after that, although. Tesla drastically reduce costs of its Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y EVs, scorching resale values. As well as, Hertz stated that Tesla’s autos have been costly to restore and unpopular with renters.
Because of this, the corporate began unloading 20,000 EVs, a couple of third of its electrified fleet. That resulted in a $245 million cost for Hertz and its largest quarterly loss because the pandemic. Different rental automobile companies have additionally not too long ago ditched EVs, with Germany’s Sixt taking out its complete fleet.
West, in the meantime, was one in all 9 Cruise executives dismissed following an incident that noticed a pedestrian dragged by a Cruise car after being struck by one other automobile. Authorities accused the corporate of withholding a video that allegedly confirmed the sufferer beneath its car.